Adolf von Zemlinszky

Adolf (von) Zemlinszky (born April 23, 1845 in Vienna , Austrian Empire ; † June 29, 1900 ibid) was an Austrian writer and journalist - and father of the composer Alexander von Zemlinsky .

Life

Born as Adolf Semlinsky, Zemlinszky was baptized Catholic . Later he chose the Hungarian spelling of his name and added a title of nobility . His life is only sparsely documented. It appears that he worked as a railway official and typist for an insurance company when he was young . On July 8, 1870 he left the Catholic Church and was accepted into the Turkish-Israelite community on November 20. Soon afterwards he took over the editing of the Sephardic monthly El Correo de Viena from his father-in-law, Shem Tov Semo . In 1871 his son Alexander was born. In 1872 Zemlinszky was appointed secretary of the Turkish-Israelite community in Vienna. His daughter Mathilde was born in 1877, married Arnold Schönberg in 1901 and died in 1923. In 1882 he took over the editor-in-chief of the magazine Wiener Punsch and from then on officially declared his profession as “ writer ”. In addition to his journalistic activities, Zemlinszky wrote a number of novels and short stories that mainly deal with topics from Jewish history. With his writing experience, he supported his son in the work on the libretto of his first opera Sarema . His history of the Turkish-Israelite community in Vienna , published in 1888, is of particular importance .

Works

• Yehuda ben Halevi
• The cursed one
• The daughter of Chasan
• Solomon Molcho
• The Count of Montfort
• The vagabond
• History of the Turkish-Israelite community in Vienna from its foundation until today: according to historical data . Vienna: Papo, 1888

source

• Antony Beaumont: Zemlinsky. Faber and Faber, London 2000 (English), ISBN 0-571-16983-X (The German translation was published by Zsolnay, Vienna, in September 2005, ISBN 3-552-05353-0 )