Enrica by Handel-Mazzetti

Enrica Handel-Mazzett c 1889

Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti (born January 10, 1871 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † April 8, 1955 in Linz ) was an Austrian writer.

Life

Enrica Handel-Mazzetti was born in Vienna in 1871 as the second daughter of k. u. k. Born captain Baron Heinrich Hypolith von Handel-Mazzetti . However, he died four months before the birth of his daughter at the age of 31 from the effects of a sunstroke . His widow, Irene , née Csergheö von Nemes Zacskánd , ensured that his two daughters Elvira and Enrica received a proper education. Enrica received her first lessons from private teachers, followed by a community and monastery school in St. Pölten . Handel-Mazzetti then returned to her mother's household in Vienna and lived with her until 1901. After graduating from high school , she studied history and linguistics in Vienna . At the age of 19 she published her first poems in various magazines. In 1895 she became an employee and columnist for the Wiener Zeitung .

Commemorative plaque on the house where Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti died. Linz, Spittelwiese

Grave of Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti in the St. Barbara cemetery in Linz

After her mother's death, she moved to Steyr in 1901 to live with an uncle on her father's side, the unmarried Baron Anton von Handel-Mazzetti . Her older sister had entered a monastery. When the uncle was appointed president of the regional court in 1911, she followed him to Linz. At that time she was working on the novel Stephana Schwertner , which has the religious struggles in old Steyr as the background. Until her death, she only left Linz for a short time. When in 1933 on the occasion of an extraordinary general meeting of the PEN clubs is a group of 25 writers a resolution against the book burning in Germany in 1933 adopted, Enrica came from Handel-Mazzetti together from other national, ethnic and Catholic authors of the PEN Club. Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti became a member of the poet academy in Germany that same year.

In 1934, while working on the Waxenbergerin , an eye disease - a detachment of the retina - became acute. She received the sacraments on September 24, 1934, but recovered and lived for 21 years. However, she was only able to resume her work after a year. After the connection of Austria to the German Reich appeared in 1941 in a small edition of the historical novel Count Reichard . However, the Propaganda Ministry in Berlin banned articles about the poet by issuing secret edicts. Even during the war, she did not leave her home. Only on December 19, 1944, when the bombing war became increasingly violent, did she move to the Elisabethinnen for a short time .

Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti died on April 8, 1955 at 3 a.m. in her apartment on Spittelwiese. She found her final resting place in a grave of honor in the St. Barbara cemetery in Linz.

plant

Her work mainly includes historical novels and short stories that deal with the time of religious struggles between Catholics and Protestants in Austria and Styria. An archaic language is characteristic of their writings . The writer was in correspondence with many other personalities, including a. with Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach .

“After a long silence, her work began a new, religiously conscious and at the same time artistically free development of poetry based on the Catholic faith. Her world was the monastery of the culturally conscious Benedictines, the hunted time of the Counter Reformation and the struggle of the denominations, which she interpreted from religious feeling. But above all confessional to her stood the power of one, Christian humanity. "

- Fritz Martini

Awards and honors

• In 1914 she received the Ebner Eschenbach Prize .
• In 1946 she became an honorary citizen of Steyr.
• In 1951 a literary prize was named after her.

In 1930, Handel-Mazzetti Strasse in Linz was named after the poet . This connects Weingartshofstrasse with Waldeggstrasse. The town of Steyr named the Handel-Mazzetti-Promenade between Schloss Lamberg and Redtenbachergasse after her in 1931 . The Handel-Mazzetti-Gasse in Wien Donaustadt (22nd District) that name since 1981. The St. in the south of the state capital Pölten located Handel-Mazzetti-road leads from the street to the Jahn Kelsengasse.

Afterlife

In 2006 the Stifterhaus in Linz organized an exhibition with the title, alluding to their correspondence: “And kiss your Busipfötchen”.

Works (selection)

• Not in vain (acting). 1891
• Small sacrifices . 1891
• Meinrad Helmperger's memorable year (story). Stuttgart 1900
• Jesse and Maria . Kempten: Kösel, 1906
• Poor Margaret (a folk novel from old Steyr). 1910
• Napoleon II 1912
• Stephana Schwertner , 3 volumes. 1912-14
• Rita's letters in 1918
• Rita's Legacy 1924
• The rose miracle , 3 volumes. 1924-26. 2nd edition 1934 under the title " Sand Trilogy "
• JC Günther . 1927
• Mrs. Maria , 3 volumes. 1929-31
• The Waxenberger . 1934
• Count Reichard , 2 volumes. 1939/40
• Karl von Aspern . 1948
• [Autobiography], in: Elga Kern (Hrsg.): Leading women in Europe . In 25 self-descriptions. New episode. Munich: E. Reinhardt, 1930, pp. 41-45

literature

• Kurt Vancsa:  Handel-Mazzetti, Enrica von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , pp. 605 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Josef J. Preyer: Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti. A biographical reader. Sutton Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86680-403-6 .
• Siebertz, Paul: Enrica of Handel-Mazzetti's personality, work and meaning. Verlag Josef Kösel & Friedrich Pustet, Munich 1930.
• Michaela Klosinski: Catholic literature between adaptation and resistance. Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti's Starhemberger novels in the context of Austrofascism, Catholic literary tradition and modernity . In: Aneta Jachimowicz (Hrsg.): Against the canon - literature of the interwar period in Austria . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2017, pp. 407–428.

Web links

• Literature by and about Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Enrica by Handel-Mazzetti in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Page Linz views

supporting documents

1. ^ ^{A b} Rudolf Lehr: Landes-Chronik Oberösterreich , Verlag Christian Brandstätter, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85498-331-X , p. 386; Article The wonderful world of fantasy by Rudolf Lehr.
2. ↑ Ulrike Oedl, in: Ueberblicke; UNI-Salzburg; 2002 - The country of exile Austria between 1933 and 1938  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed Oct. 9, 2008)  
3. ↑ Kurt Habitzel: literature and literary in Tyrol under the sign of the connection . Thesis. Ed .: University of Innsbruck. Innsbruck 1990, p. 33 and 87 ( uibk.ac.at [PDF]).
4. ↑ ^{a b} OÖN - poet who gave the street and literature prize her name (accessed on December 22, 2009)
5. ↑ Quoted in: Antonius Lux (Ed.): Große Frauen der Weltgeschichte. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 207.
6. ↑ Steyr - street names