Alma Auswald-Heller

Alma Auswald-Heller (born March 15, 1876 in Obergoss , Iglau , Moravia ; † July 8, 1947 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian writer who mainly wrote children's and youth books in the 1930s and 1940s. Before that she was also known as a painter and exhibited her pictures at home and abroad.

Life

Alma Auswald-Heller was born on March 15, 1876 in the Moravian village of Obergoss near Iglau (today Horní Kosov, a district of Jihlava) and grew up in a wealthy family with two sisters. After completing general schooling, she attended the Vienna School of Applied Arts from 1906 to 1910 , where she was a student of Kolo Moser . From 1914 she lived in Innsbruck . At first she became known as a painter and exhibited her works at exhibitions in Vienna , Innsbruck and Hamburg and created illustrations for the Velhagen & Klasing monthly issues , among other things . During the First World War , Auswald-Heller, who was the mother of a daughter at the time, lost her husband and had to struggle with major financial problems due to the devaluation of money. Nevertheless, Auswald-Heller, who already thought up long stories as a little girl, which, however, met with little understanding in her family, wrote for a young audience. Furthermore, she was socially committed as president of the Association of Christian Warrior Widows and Orphans of Tyrol . In addition, she ran a painting and drawing school in her arts and crafts atelier on Müllerstrasse, where she taught various art techniques.

Already in the 1920s she wrote mostly smaller articles and in 1925 she won third prize (50 schillings ) for the feature section Die Kartoffel in the feature section competition organized by the Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung . In the same year she again took third place with a humoresque in a literary competition organized on the occasion of the Düsseldorf exhibition and received 500 marks for this . Supported and encouraged by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach , she began writing children's and youth novels. One of her first better-known works was Three Boys Playing Robinson. A funny story from children's life , which was first published in 1929 by Levy & Müller . At that time she wrote articles in the Allgemeine Tiroler Anzeiger or the Innbrucker Nachrichten at irregular intervals . The books Das goldene Knabenbuch and Will's Reise unter Wasser followed in 1930 . One of her most famous works was Father Knoop and his 40 boys. Adventures and pranks in the holiday home , which from 1938 onwards also as forty boys at Reinek Castle. Funny adventures and pranks in the vacation home was known and appeared in several editions until the 1950s. In 1933 she published If you want, says Günter , followed by We German Boys. Stories from the difficult times in East Prussia from 1934. She dedicated the last-mentioned book to the then Lieutenant General Paul von Hindenburg ; the book was banned by the German administration for public education in the Soviet occupation zone . Other publications, some of which were published posthumously after her death , were, among others, We three and a vagabond (1947), Four memorable days (1949) or The bag boy. Karlsteiner's adventurous odyssey (1951).

During his life, Auswald-Heller received several awards and was among other things the winner of a Rome Prize from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna .

She died on July 8, 1947 at the age of 71 in Innsbruck, her adopted home.

Publications (selection)

• 1925: The potato (feature section)
• 1929: Three boys play Robinson. A funny story from children's life
• 1930: The golden book for boys
• 1930: Will's journey under water (with illustrations by Helmut Starbina )
• 1931: Father Knoop and his 40 boys. Adventures and pranks in the vacation home ; Title in the editions from 1938: Forty boys at Reinek Castle. Funny adventures and pranks in the vacation home
• 1933: If you want, says Günter
• 1934: We German boys. Stories from the difficult times in East Prussia
• 1947: The three of us and a vagabond
• 1949: four memorable days
• 1951: The baggage boy. The Karlsteiner's adventurous wanderings

literature

• Ilse Korotin : biografiA. Lexicon of Austrian Women (four volumes) . tape 1 . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-79590-2 , p. 163–164 ( boehlau-verlag.com [PDF]).
• Susanne Blumesberger : Handbook of Austrian authors of books for children and young people (two volumes) . tape 1 . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2014, ISBN 978-3-205-78552-1 , p. 76-77 .
• Alois Gehart: Auswald-Heller, Alma . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 5, Saur, Munich a. a. 1992, ISBN 3-598-22745-0 , p. 690.
• Auswald-Heller, Alma . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 1 : A-D . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1953, p. 81 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Classified ad. In:  Allgemeiner Tiroler Anzeiger , June 12, 1919, p. 8 (online at ANNO ).
2. ^ The result of our feature price competition. In:  Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung , December 5, 1925, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).
3. ↑ Article  in:  Allgemeine Tiroler Anzeiger , December 12, 1925, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).
4. ^ Literary competition for the Düsseldorf exhibition. In:  Salzburger Chronik für Stadt und Land , June 14, 1925, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).
5. ↑ Youth .. In:  Allgemeine Tiroler Anzeiger , August 17, 1929, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).
6. ↑ A heat wave .. In:  Innsbruck News , August 13, 1932, p 4 (Online at ANNO ).
7. ^ New books for young people for Christmas. In:  Reichspost , December 2, 1930, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).