Franz Spunda

Franz Spunda (born January 1, 1890 in Olomouc ; † July 1, 1963 in Vienna ) was an Austrian writer with German-Moravian roots. He emerged with narrative literature, cultural-historical essay writing, poetry, drama and translations.

Brief description

Franz Spunda, oil painting (around 1950, owned by the Dr. Christoph Spunda family, Vienna)

Franz Spunda initially made a name for himself as a writer of “magical novels” ( Devachan , 1921, The Yellow and White Pope , 1923 etc.) and as a poet with occult and mystical influences ( Hymns , 1919, Astralis , 1920 etc.). As a translator for Petrarch, Aretino, Leopardi and Ossian, he also received early recognition. It was the "turning away from an expressionism that had become formal and intellectual" that Spunda conjured up under the slogan of "magical art".

After distancing himself from his literary beginnings, which were dominated by esoteric fantasy, he continued his work with sophisticated travelogues from Greece, Italy and Asia Minor (including Greek Journey , 1926, revisions 1938 and 1956, The Holy Mount Athos , 1928). These set themselves apart from both the classical and the Dionysian image of antiquity and developed a “hermetic” perspective on a world in the aftermath of archaic mysteries and Byzantine religious splendor.

Starting from dealing with the Greek cultural area, Spunda's journalistic focus gradually shifted to historical novels (including Minos or The Birth of Europe , 1931, "Visigoth Trilogy": Wulfila , 1936, Alarich , 1937, The Empire without People , 1938) and cultural-historical essays (including Paracelsus , 1925, revised 1941, history of the Medici , 1944). He was concerned with the interpretation of mythical traditions and historical processes with "spiritual political" significance for the present: for Europe at a crossroads, but also for his own, deeply shaken nation, which in his eyes is overcoming its disorientation in the return to signs and processes of the past needed.

Since the late 1920s, Spunda, who was also very committed to his profession, was one of the most respected authors of his generation in Austria. In the 1930s he began to sympathize with national revolutionary ideas and was a member of the NSDAP. In the war years he moved away from it and created works of “Inner Emigration” (including Der Herr vom Hradschin , Der Sang aus der Tief , both 1942, Plato , begun 1940, published from the estate in 2012).

After the war, he continued to publish his novels with decreasing response and also wrote autobiographical writings (including spring annals , 1957). In addition to the dominant poetic-historiographical mixed form of the "life novels", which turned to the great loners of art and intellectual history and their conflicts with the powers of the time (including Burned by God's Fire , 1949, Giorgiones Liebeslied , 1955, The mystical life of Jakob Boehme , 1961), the renewed engagement with the religious culture of Eastern Christianity moved on. The author saw the "metaphysical based" Athos community and the ascetic-hermitic religiousness of the monks threatened by the ravages of the age of tourism. At the same time he saw in them the much-longed for corrective for the misguided Occident, corrupted by progress ( Legends and Frescos from Mount Athos , 1962).

Life

From Olomouc to Vienna

Franz Spunda as a young man (photo, taken from the volume "Franz Spunda in Context", Olomouc 2015)

Franz Spunda was the son of a master tailor at the Archbishop's Seminary in Olomouc. The father came from the Hanoverian farming village Doloplaz (Doloplazy) and was Germanized as an orphan with relatives. The mother came from a family of drapers in Odrau, Austrian Silesia. Franz grew up in a clerical milieu that was characterized by the rites and festivals of the church year and an ever-present popular piety. He discovered early on a passion for legends, fairy tales and haunted stories. He also believed that he was able to perceive special abilities in himself in the course of puberty, which he identified as a “preliminary stage for the sixth sense”. Transcendence experiences and immersion experiences (feverish twilight states, "anxiety", auratic perceptions, "astral dreams") accompanied him through his life. His interest in foreign and exotic countries as well as his great talent for languages ​​also emerged early on. Partly in self-study he learned French, English, and later Italian and Modern Greek. The enthusiastically received Greek lessons in high school laid the basis for his later turn to the ancient cultural and historical landscapes.

After graduation, Spunda was sent to the imperial city of Vienna to study, where he took German and Romance studies, but also devoted himself to philosophical studies. A scholarship enabled him as a doctoral student to spend a few semesters in Berlin and Munich; Long stays to practice French in Geneva and Paris followed. On his travels Spunda got to know and appreciate free religious, especially theosophical ideas (Sunday services of the Horneffer brothers in Munich, Schelling's studies); he also got in touch with occult circles (Papus, di Gérard Encausse, theosophist, Rosicrucian and Kabbalist, in Paris). A lifelong systematic deepening in mystical literature, the writings of Christian mysticism, the Kabbalah and the hermetic philosophy of the Middle Ages and early modern times began.

In 1913 Spunda received his doctorate in Vienna with a doctoral thesis on The German Petrarca Translations by AW Schlegel (1786) to the present (unprinted) as a Doctor of Philosophy and passed the teaching examinations in German and French. When the First World War broke out, he volunteered for civil war service with the Academic Legion and was then largely employed as an X-ray assistant in the military observation hospital in Dzieritz, Galicia, and later in stage service with the 54th Infantry Regiment in Kruševac, Serbia, and in Przemyśl, Galicia.

After being discharged due to illness, from autumn 1917 he was represented at the German State High School in Mährisch-Ostrau. From September 1918 until his retirement he was employed as a professor for German, French and philosophical propaedeutics at the Staatsrealgymnasium Wien VIII, Albertgasse. He remained closely connected to his parents and three sisters in Moravia and regularly spent time at home until they were expelled and expropriated after the Second World War. He also took part in the literary life of Moravia and the Sudetenland.

Travel to the south

In 1924 Spunda accepted an invitation from the revered Northern Lights poet Theodor Däubler and went on his first trip to Greece. About 14 further trips, which took him through all the Greek landscapes and to almost all important historical sites, followed, mostly on foot, with modest means and deliberately carried out without modern tourist claims. He also made trips to Asia Minor and North Africa. Spunda spent weeks on Mount Athos in search of orthodox piety and mysticism and studied their art and legends. Mediated by Däubler, he also frequented the German artists' colony on Capri.

Commitment to literary politics

As early as the 1920s, Spunda was involved in the "Protection Association of German Writers in Austria" (temporarily as its managing director) and the Austrian PEN Club for political issues, at that time still in liberal contexts. In 1933 he was one of those authors who turned their backs on the PEN Club because of their national-conservative and völkisch views. The occasion was a protest resolution passed by a majority of the club, which was directed against the cultural policy of the National Socialists who came to power in Germany. Those who left followed up with public counter-declarations. Afterwards, Spunda, who had been a member of the NSDAPÖ and the Nazi teachers' association since 1932, actively participated in various attempts at the professional collection of writers from the "national", affiliate-friendly camp within Austria, in particular in the "Reich Association of German Writers" (temporarily as its “regional director”?) and at the “Association of German Writers Austria”.

After the “Anschluss”, Spunda, as a prominent author of the Zsolnay Verlag (“Aryanized”: KH Bischoff) and a member of the semi-official “Wiener Dichterkreis”, was undoubtedly one of the beneficiaries of the new cultural and political system. However, in the 1940s, not least because of his pacifist attitudes, he turned away from the regime with growing disgust. As a result of his persistent occult interests and the insubordinate content of some publications, he had to tolerate repression such as Gestapo interrogations and confiscations (particularly directed against Paracelsus's worldview ).

After the fall of the Nazi regime, Spunda was relieved of his teaching post due to the prohibition law; his entire work was placed on the "list of blocked authors and books", which is only binding for public libraries. Only in 1948 did the author request the Federal President to withdraw the essential consequences of atonement that had been imposed on him by the Nazi Prohibition Act and that had plunged his family into considerable material hardship. He has been given regular retirement. On January 27, 1949, the “Central Commission for Combating Nazi Literature” negotiated Spunda's application for the release of his writings. As early as 1946, the chairman of the “Association of Democratic Writers and Journalists of Austria”, Edwin Rollett, who had spent some time in concentration camp imprisonment after the “Anschluss” as part of the “Ständestaat” nomenclature, issued a damning statement on the question for the Ministry of Education given by Spunda's political reliability. When asked by the “Central Commission”, he now repeated his negative recommendation and relied primarily on the so-called “Visigoth Trilogy”. However, the decision of the commission followed the opinion of the library editor Eva Obermayer-Marnach, who examined the work in detail and declared it to be harmless. All works were then released again.

From then on Spunda devoted himself to his studies and worked as a freelance writer.

Franz Spunda at the age of around 70 (photo owned by the Dr. Christoph Spunda family, Vienna)

Family and estate

In 1946, in the midst of the turmoil after the war, Spunda's first wife, Désirée Heinrich from Vienna, had succumbed to her long-lasting illness. This marriage, entered into in 1925, had three sons and one daughter. In 1955 Spunda had a second marriage with the high school teacher Dr. Maria Josefa Hecht, who, however, died five years later of cancer. The author himself suffered a breakdown on his last trip through Greece in 1963 and died of the consequences shortly after his return to Vienna. He was buried at the Ober Sankt Veiter cemetery .

Spunda's sister Johanna sifted through the estate and handed it over to the German Literature Archive in Marbach in 1964. It also includes several unprinted novels, dramatic works, lyric collections, historical, mythographic, and esoteric studies. The poet's eldest son, the renowned neurologist Christoph Spunda (1927–2018), has made himself his person in the recent past through new editions of out-of-print works, through the publication of the extensive “novel poem” Plato from the estate and through the support of literary research Father deserves.

1979 an alley in Vienna- Floridsdorf was named after the poet.

Work and effect

Occult beginnings

Franz Spunda. Baphomet. An alchemical novel (EA 1928); Edition by Gerhard Stalling Verlag, 1930, front cover

Franz Spunda's literary beginnings lie in the occult and esoteric roots of his spiritual self-discovery. The early poetry ( Hymnen , 1919, Astralis , 1920, Gottesfeuer , 1924) is an expression of passionate religious longing, transcendence and ecstasy experiences, partly dithyrambically tuned and free rhythm, partly in romanticizing rhyming stanzas. This is combined with a prophetic gesture that is characteristic of the type of poet in the area of ​​Expressionism. From this point of view, Spunda also creates highly symbolically exaggerated time experiences such as the longing for peace after the horrors of the World War.

The early dramas, which are only partially published or performed (such as the one-act play Die Befreiung , printed in 1921, and the “Mysterium in Three Acts” Death of Adam , premiered at the Stettin City Theater in 1923), agree with this tone a. They are to be regarded as the most consistent implementations of his artistic positions at the time, as presented in the concept of the “Eleusinian drama”, which is contained in the central collection of essays The Magical Poet (1923). With the future figure of the “magical poet” or the idea of ​​the “occult myth” (see the essay Poetical Tasks of the Occult Myth , published 1925) Spunda creates a role figure of the replacement of Expressionism by a hybrid poetry on the threshold of the sacred: “ The artist as an otherworldly person is the type of our time. "

Meanwhile, in the eyes of the author, Spunda's first novels have more of the function of conveying occult beliefs and motives. They are vehicles for a broad discussion of esoteric problems and with the genre specifications they become “magical” ( Devachan , 1921, The Yellow and White Pope , 1923), “necromantic” ( The Egyptian Book of the Dead , 1924) or “alchemical” ( Baphomet , 1928 ) Mistake. They move in the vicinity of the grotesquely fantastic fashion literature, as it was established before the war by Gustav Meyrink, the famous author of the golem . Meyrink includes two works by Spunda in the series of novels and books of magic published by him at Rikola-Verlag .

Spunda maintains a lively exchange with him and with numerous other authors and scholars of the extremely lively discourse on secret science of the 1920s and 30s; it is also regularly present in magazines and anthologies of this spectrum (e.g. Magische Blätter , Hain der Isis , Das Wunder , Psyche , Das Neue Licht , after 1945 among others Mensch und Schicksal ). He writes about the “wonderful world of Kabbalah” in a preface to Chajim Bloch's edition of the life memories of the Kabbalist Vital (1927). In his view, parapsychic phenomena can be explained in the light of a regular religious worldview of the type of Kabbalah, determined by a balance between the here and now and beyond, "as what they really are, namely as natural laws that have not yet been fully recognized". Even then, Spunda published in renowned liberal and national conservative magazines as well as in organs of the Catholic renewal movement (including Die Tat , Der Kunstwart , Die neue Rundschau , Orplid , Der Grail , Witiko ).

Another prominent author of German-language fantastic narrative literature in the early 20th century, the German Bohemian Karl Hans Strobl, judges Spunda's debut Devachan :

“As far as I know Spunda's novel is the first attempt to form literary form the cosmogony and esotericism of theosophy. So Spunda has a material priority that should be recognized. The artistic formation is of course a little behind his thought work [...]. Spunda's novel plays - despite occasional events that are not very firmly anchored in reality - on a different level than ours, so to speak, and so it lacks that 'bringing in' the supernatural into everyday life, which makes up the peculiar charm of the fantastic. His characters are all too mere carriers of thoughts, of principles, of secret scientific ideas, to have an impact. But if you give up our level, if you move away from the foundations of our thinking, if you renounce the artistic-formal, then you become part of the great poetic momentum, the glowing passion of his daring thoughts, the bold inspiration of his design and the power of his astral visions Joy and enthusiasm are allowed to follow. "

However, Spunda's fantastic novels do not shy away from using trivial literary strategies and all sorts of sensational effects. At the same time, they are guided by the view that the tense elements of the plot, such as alchemical and other “magical” practices, vampirism, transmigration of souls, doppelganger etc., only the questionable ones, e.g. Sometimes also dangerous outer manifestations that represented symbols of a spiritual struggle, a process that is too existing inside, which refers people to higher truths. Where Spunda's protagonists resist the temptation to selfishly exploit “magical” knowledge, magic itself opens the door to a deeper spirituality and to transform the present, shaken by a human crisis, into its symbols. The key power of the deeper connections between the micro- and macrocosm is love. 

Turning away from the fantastic

Franz Spunda: The worldview of Paracelsus (1941); Revised version of the first edition from 1925, front cover

From the retrospective, Spunda discards most of his early writings, declaring them to be mere reflections of the “chaos of the world” after the war and of his own “mental crises”. He sees the monumental translation of Ossian's works in rhythmic re-creation, a complete edition that he published in 2 volumes in 1924, as lasting . Significantly, she understands the saga of Ossian , actually an "invention" of the 18th century, as a witness to the human striving to "survive the fall of the world as a victor in the spirit". Spundas Ossian is variously rated as one of the best quality complete German translations. However, it has “no philological or conservational claim; rather, it is a form of analytical-productive reception, because Ossian is functionalized for aesthetic purposes. "

The author sees his extensive Paracelsus study from 1925 (expanded and modified new edition 1941) as a link to the second phase of his literary work . It is based on a great knowledge of the history of ideas, maintains a measured, clear style, in contrast to earlier writings, and is recognized and valued far beyond the popular philosophical framework that it has set itself. Contemporary Paracelsism also has strong facets of occult meaning, which Spunda received with great clarity. Nonetheless, the discussion with Paracelsus helps him to gain a level-headed position that maintains a measure between the natural and the spiritual and spiritual dimensions of being human:

“To recognize the essence of things, including one's own, is the main task of magical knowledge. Whoever has achieved this will use the forces of nature for the healing of mankind. He will also help nature where it cannot have enough effect by itself; he will shape and build the chaotic in her by imposing his own character on her. Because man, although he is nature, is further than she is, is increased nature through the power of the divine spirit that lives in him.

Thus, in Hohenheim's sense, magic is an intimate immersion in nature, an active looking and recognizing that has nothing to do with popular superstition, an immersion that still has the strength to act and shape what is seen, in short, a dynamic theology the nature."

Greece experience

Franz Spunda: Greek Journey (1926), title page

Spunda's places of longing have meanwhile shifted to the Greek world. On numerous journeys, both in lyrical form ( Eleusinian Sonnets , 1933, Die Phädriaden , posthumously 1970) and in literary travelogues, he traces the archaic mysteries, the Byzantine culture and the life of the Greek people at that time. The tendency towards autobiographical confrontation with Greece - both the past and the present - does not allow the “magic” maxims of his early aesthetics to disappear overnight. It is much more likely that these appear displaced and transformed into the new fields of discourse. Externally, this comes to the fore because the early editions of the travel reports ( Greek Journey , 1926, The Holy Mount Athos , 1928) still have numerous motivic elements and narrative structures from the haunted story, the “Gothic Novel” and the grotesquely fantastic genre of The turn of the century includes - up to necromancy, “magical” experiments, the real presence of “curse” and “atonement” and astral dream experiences.

The later versions (especially Greece. Journeys to the old gods , 1938) smooth, clarify and moderate the style and presentation. On the other hand, they also have a political thrust in some places. This sometimes already refers to the author's newly awakened commitment to National Socialist Germany, for example where he interprets Olympia as a “national community”, “which is creatively pulsed with the fighting instinct to create”, or in connection with the coup d'état leading to the Metaxas dictatorship, its anti-communist and anti-Semitic thrust is addressed in the Werria episode of the Macedonia stay.

Spunda's travelogues want to speak out for a creative restoration of occidental humanity. They invoke a return to a model of society that is committed to spiritual values ​​and a religious order. They want to overcome the fragmentation and confusion that they identify with modernity. To do this, they primarily use a mystical approach; Using irrational perspectives, they explore archaic remnants and “auratic” landscapes. For this they develop a synaesthetically tinted poetics of the "God show":

“[...] the law of the spirit triumphs over the order of power. Greece must always be understood as a movement for light, never as a state. In every Greek work of art and in every idea there are germs for new works and ideas, every small one contains a seed of the great, and the archaic is a premonition of the classical. "

“[...] That is the miracle of Greece, which amazes the stranger before he has even set foot on Greek soil, that the light lets him experience the reality of the world, that the soul emerges from the experienced feeling for nature increases until man and nature have become one, as natural and light as everything in this divine light. "

The literature is thus burdened with specific functional expectations and the modern claim to autonomy is restricted in favor of the doctrine of wisdom, the pursuit of a mystical path of experience, initiation and ritual (see the leitmotif of the "Eleusinian initiation" in the mystery). For this reason, the traveller's self-assurance is also required: he functions as a person who is knowledgeable about cultural history and interprets, as someone who wanders the landscape in the place of the reader, and as someone who is capable of mystical experiences of transcendence. Logically, the travel episodes are structured in that they head towards the climax of the mystical immersion in the search for the archaic. Biographical reassurance grants the narrative ego, which appears as a charismatic bearer in decisive moments: gifted with the “sixth sense”, capable of the “third state”, the “enhanced soul”.

The Sonnets for Greece, which arise parallel to the travel descriptions, are the concentrated expression of this author's awareness. In Eleusis, Spunda sees the place as well as - generalizing - the principle and the moment of redemption: "Truly, Eleusis is everywhere where the soul detaches itself from the bonds of its elementary entanglement." He ties in with the meditative or evocative ecstatic travel poems the postulate of the "new Eleusinian art of the spirit", which he raised already in the "magical" creative phase.

The first novel-like adaptations of the Hellas longing are still clearly under this spell: Minos or The Birth of Europe (1931), Greek Adventure (1932), Romulus (1934) . Minos is probably associated with the highest artistic standards among Spunda's historical novels and is also perceived by contemporary critics as the author's main work. Stylistically, he sticks to an opulent exoticism influenced by Eduard Stucken and does not shy away from borrowing from the sword-and-sorcery fantasy. In terms of material, he draws on the earliest event of the cultural transformation process that the author still claims for his own present. For Spunda, a thread of spiritual and cultic orientation leads through the entire European history of the replacement of the Minoan culture, which is still strongly influenced by Asian influences, by the Hellenic cultural epoch. This could mean the source of salvation and new beginnings for the shattered Europe of the present and not least for the German people.

The cultural-morphological speculations that flow into Spunda's turn to the beginnings of Europe popularize life-reforming ideas and concepts of the time. B. in Theodor Däubler's tracts The Holy Mount Athos (1923) and Delos (1925) are in a highly poetic form. Spunda also finds what he is looking for with Rudolf Pannwitz, Rudolf Borchardt and other culturally critical contemporaries, as well as with theories of early history, such as Edgar Dacqué's view that early peoples with a creative worldview still had a later stunted “natural-vision organ”.

A bridging and key function on the way home to the "old gods", ie to the modern adaptation of the European primeval mystery, is assigned to the Byzantine world in Spunda. This is linked to the hope for a "new gonstic Christianity". Already in the first book of Greece, Byzantium is referred to as "the highest revelation of Christian Greece" in the sense of the succession and transfiguration of the archaic myth:

“All of this is in my blood, this is the heartbeat of my life, is what I would like to be: enraptured by the fire of God and love-burning, but tamed by wisdom and tolerant power, greed for light and purification, prophecy and play. [...] "

“[...] The whole of Greece from Atreus to Theodosius found its last highest fulfillment in Byzantium. [...] If a rebirth of the Greek spirit is possible, it can only take place from Byzantium. "

Success as a travel writer

Franz Spunda: Greece. Trips to the Old Gods (1938); Revised edition of the first edition from 1926, front cover

Many of the travel episodes from books on Greece were first published in the features of daily newspapers (especially Neue Freie Presse , Wiener Neue Nachrichten ), in cultural magazines and almanacs (including Der Kunstwart , Reclams Universum , Die Lesestunde , Das Inselschiff , Witiko , Der Graal ), travel magazines and Illustrated (including Atlantis , Die Pause, after 1945 Merian ). His literature on Greece is associated with the highest reputation that Franz Spunda achieved throughout his life in the literary world. Felix Braun, a well-known Austrian writer and art historian from the circle around Stefan Zweig, welcomes the first edition of the Greek journey in the Neue Freie Presse as by far the most important modern text of its genre, only outshone by Hugo von Hofmannsthal's famous Phokis sketch:

"A scholar and poet of far-reaching and profound knowledge, gifted with the art of vividly vivid description, achieves in this work [...] the rare harmony of two otherwise mutually avoiding qualities: the looking as well as the overlooked, the indirect as well as the immediate, and so the reader enjoys both: instruction and enchantment. He sees a strange and yet deeply suspected land, its people and its gods, and he experiences and understands all this spirit in an interpretable, living sense. "

Hofmannsthal himself also expresses his consent to the author in a letter (March 9, 1927). Richard Strauss, among others, responded to the second edition, organized by the renowned Insel-Verlag, with an enthusiastic letter (November 15, 1939). The composer, who declares himself an “enthusiastic 'Greek'”, praises Spunda's “visionary interpretations especially of the Greek landscape” and concludes with the confession:

"After studying your beautiful work, I now know all of Greece as if I had been everywhere myself and [nd] for that I thank you in particular [...]"

The work on the Athos Book from 1928 - Spunda's first island publication and a pioneering act in the field of fiction not only for the German-speaking area - brings the author, among other things, the friendship of the Archimandrite Chrysostomos of Dionysiu.

Story told and interpreted

Even when dealing with history, Franz Spunda believes that the poet remains a bearer of charisma. The literary interpretation of the historical process takes place in the large-scale historical novel, in small historical narratives and in essayistic presentations. The choice of fabrics follows the guiding concept of tracing the traditions of occult wisdom and hermetically dark philosophical truths in Western history. The author of such narrative art - a mixture of historiographical development and poetic paraphrase - proceeds as a “backward-looking prophet”. In this way, with the help of the imagination, he closes the gaps in tradition, which are particularly large when it comes to visualizing epochs far back in time. He also allows himself to deal with the existing historical sources relatively freely, although not arbitrarily.

Spunda's historical novels, however, allow the sources - such as chronicles and ancient historical works, also philosophical, religious and literary-artistic texts of the time described - to flow partly literally or in narrow paraphrases. They are strongly characterized by dialogically explicative and reflexive passages. Nevertheless, they maintain a fictional accessibility in the aesthetic and try to bring the reader to life in a psychologically agitated, suggestive way the difficult intellectual facts, which they urgently take on in their turn to intellectual history.

They also see themselves as “prophetic” in the claim to show the way and direction by means of the development and interpretation of the historical process of the political and social situation of one's own present in the face of disruption and loss of orientation. They are therefore expressly conceived as factors in a counter-movement to the "collapses of the post-war period" and as contributions to the "thought of the resurgence" of the nation. Here - in the associated work on the national myth - a problem area arises against the background of which Spunda's personal advocacy for national revolutionary goals can be seen. The novels of the thirties and early forties undoubtedly intervene in a German-national discourse, as it was in the historical narrative literature at the same time by other Sudeten German-influenced writers such as Mirko Jelusich, Robert Hohlbaum, Karl Hans Strobl or Wladimir von Hartlieb with whom Spunda at the time wrong, is represented. The author also contributes to this with a variety of journalistic statements and in his cultural-political appearance. The current topic of "strong personality" and "heroism", questions of "leadership" and the relationship between ruler and people, the guiding concept of the "national community", the colorful concept of the empire, etc. are also touched upon in Spunda's historical novels.

Franz Spunda: Das Reich ohne Volk (1938), front cover

This applies in particular to the trilogy of novels about the fate of the Visigoths' migration ( Wulfila , 1936, Alarich , 1937, Das Reich ohne Volk , 1938). In terms of material, it goes back to a predilection for the Gothic linguistic world that had already developed during university studies and the later abandoned plan for a habilitation on this subject. Not only in the development of intellectual debates, but also in the spread of political questions, Spunda uses a sometimes surprisingly contemporary expression in these novels. So - groundbreaking for his entire historical epic - he largely refrains from the historicizing speech gesture, which was very popular at the time.

Despite the suggested close relationship, he sets independent accents in the literary view of history, which are based on other than folk traditions of the genre. Around the figure of the bishop and Bible translator Wulfila he traces the process of the acceptance of Arian Christianity by the Teutons. This process also represents a transfer of older, Greek archaic divine vision across the threshold of epochs and the boundaries between peoples and cultures. Spunda's interpretation of this legendary event also has ideas of a people's “species-specific” religion in the way of contemporary ones "German-believing" discourses. However, she emphasizes "not on the (social Darwinist underpinned) containment and demarcation of one's own, but on the contrary - on the - therefore by no means less conflictual - transference and appropriation of the foreign." Above all, Spunda's Visigoth trilogy is now modified the role that the searching individual assumed in the earlier novels and also in the travel books, stylizing the “people” themselves as the bearers of the “occult myth”.

In the ruling figure of Alaric, the besiegers and conquerors of Rome, what emerges as the central motif in the novels that emerged during the Second World War: Spunda's political heroes have “a very ambivalent, if not to say hesitant, relationship on exercise of power, violence and war ”. They are not one-dimensional power natures, but characters plagued by conflict and doubt, struggling with themselves and the spiritual problems of their time.

Ex negatively, this also applies to the failing figure of the leader, for example the fickle King Thiudareik in the kingdom without a people , who cannot prevent a deep rift between the political and priestly elites on the one hand and the simple people of the Visigoths on the other their attempt at state formation. Similar to the portrait of a murderer, intriguer and tyrant in the story Ali Pascha by Janina (1932), which stands on the threshold of the historical study. Spunda increasingly prefers techniques of sober, distant, illuminating narration from multiple perspectives, which relates to certain tendencies of “magical realism” as an epoch style.

Inner emigration

Franz Spunda: The Lord of the Hradschin. Roman Emperor Charles IV (1942); First edition, front cover

The novel Der Herr vom Hradschin (1942) embodies this development for a new phase in the author's ideological positioning. More recent research, following an early suggestion of the Czech Germanist Ludvík E. Václavek, has emphatically, if not unconditionally, moved this work into the vicinity of “inner emigration”. Emperor Charles IV of the Luxembourg family is portrayed by Spunda as a ruler who tries to achieve the goals of her reign in a time of upheaval through diplomacy and peace politics: as a “gardener”, not as a “taker” (exploiter) of the empire . In addition, she is characterized by an eminently open-mindedness towards the learned and artistic achievements, especially the pioneering mystical forces of her time, including Judaism, Islam and Far Eastern wisdom. Karl's imperial policy - interpreted by Spunda against the background of a late-bohemian conception for his own present - is based on the idea of ​​reconciliation and equal cooperation between Germans and Slavs. As the son of a German and a Bohemian, the last daughter of the Przemyslids, Karl sublimates the dichotomy of his own nature to which he owes his inner turmoil, but also his sensitivity and high spiritual and musical receptivity. - The opposite type is created in the novel Der Tyrann Gottes (1941) about Pope Boniface VIII, a representation of political hubris on a grand scale, also embedded in a far-reaching epoch painting.

Another result of dissident writing is Spunda's story Der Sang aus der Tief (1942). The historical dress, which once again allows us to put the National Socialist policies of occupation and oppression against the Czechs in a critical light, forms the scene of the occupation of Olomouc by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War. Typically for Spunda, the text does not deal with a political problem in the narrower sense, but rather with personal conversion through a mystical-magical key experience. The intrusion of the fantastic and supernatural is here again combined with elements of the legend and the miracle, the haunted and scary story. Moreover, he only preserves a reality for the individual, the Swedish warlord Lennart Torstenson, beyond the moment in which the unraveling with the means of reason has already been successful. For the former, however, the ghostly illusion has become a "song from the depths of his own soul". He opposes martial law and shows leniency against the Slavic lover of a soldier who was partly responsible for the incident, in order to forbid the war business in the future.

The seeker of God as the enemy of time

Franz Spunda: The mystical life of Jakob Böhmes (1961); First edition, front cover

In Franz Spunda's later novels, the literary structure shifts from the large-format painting of the times, in which a metaphysically interpreted fate of the people is embedded, to the sketchy portrait of the extraordinary individual fate. This change in the heavyweights and the creative demands can already be seen in the novels that were written during the war. In addition to the “Roman Emperor Charles IV” mentioned in the previous section, the extensive “novel poem” Plato (written from 1940) should be mentioned here. It moves the fate of the thinker, teacher and advisor into an exciting, threatening horizon of life and epochs of danger of war, tyranny, despotism and the failure of both aristocratic rule and democracy. On the other hand, it sets up the ideal of the Platonic state. As expected, the spiritual hero from history is provided with an adventurous educational path that makes his genesis as the guardian of hermetic insights into the deeper connections of the world appear credible. The final modifications in Plato's political conception later emerged from critical observation and the failure to participate in the public life of the Greek city-states. Its statesmen and lawmakers now have to be “politicians of peace”, not men trained in the craft of war, and its “new state will be a state of God”, borne by the primacy of “morality” and education for the “enjoyment of the beautiful life”. “Life in the new state is worship. Religion is the breath that interweaves everything. "

Like another "novel poem" of considerable scope, the Virgil , which was probably written in the immediate vicinity, Plato remained unpublished during the author's lifetime. A third “novel poem”, Herakleitos, the thinker between battles , on the other hand, appeared in print in 1957 and completes a loosely structured series of novels in which Spunda is devoted to three ancient founding figures of the hermetic-esoteric canon he cultivated.

The first novel with which Spunda emerged after the war embodies the new pattern of the storytelling, preferably designated as a "life novel", already in clarified form. Accordingly, he shows more modest artistic dimensions and holds the middle between popular biography and literary work of art. Overall, the novels of the late work show “less the struggle for problems and their clarification than the intention to educate the reader, to offer him a kind of stylized 'encyclopedia' about the corresponding epochs and their intellectual life, admittedly from the ideal point of view of the author ". In Burned by God's Fire , Giordano Bruno's “Life Novel” (1949), there is also a noticeable reduction in the right to instructive “interference” in current “spiritual-political” issues.

The focus is on the figure of the famous humanistic university scholar and heretic, the type of struggling individual who fails and has to fail in his historical existence. Striving for deeper knowledge and unwilling to sacrifice the known truths to the dogmas of his time, he is opposed to their political climate, the ruling system, hostile and ultimately irreconcilable. The interaction with circles interested in secret science, for example around the necromancer John Dee in Mortlake or the Kabbalist Rabbi Löw in Prague, and the reception of heretically perceived texts fertilize his intellectual path. But you cannot get him to give up his skeptical subjectivity in blind trust in the secret powers. Giordano Bruno interprets special mental experiences, the participation in higher states, the traces of the divine mystery received individually, not in the sense of a heretical counter-collective. Contemporary literary criticism has clearly perceived this aspect of the biography of a novel, which can also be seen as an autobiographical moment:

"Especially today, when human freedom is more than ever in danger of being sacrificed to collectivism, whatever its form, this work by the Sudeten German poet is almost cryptically topical." ( Stuttgarter Nachrichten , August 5, 1950)

Only in the self-sacrificing clinging to the hard-won will to truth do these protagonists of Spunda's episodic constructed novels by artists and scholars become heroes of the spirit. Giordano Bruno, the “erring knight of philosophy”, appears on his restless flight through Europe, evil as the always “triumphant beast”. He himself, who says of himself that he can “neither believe nor doubt”, only finds himself fully in captivity and under the terror of the Holy Inquisition: “through the deepest suffering and overcoming it”.

Jakob Böhme, the ostracized mystic, to whom Spunda's last published “life novel” is dedicated ( The mystical life of Jakob Böhmes , 1961), is accompanied by a secret society of Rosicrucian convictions in its struggle for knowledge and for the linguistic fixation of its hermetic experiences of faith. But it can neither shield him from the stereotypes of the ruling orthodoxy and the narrow-minded bourgeois authorities, nor does he know how to bring his solitary immersion into the numinous in full harmony with its esoteric conventions and occult interests. The literary figure of Jakob Böhme "may be addressed as a projection of a self-portrayal" of the author "into the world of Emperor Rudolf II", as Johanna Spunda reports in her memoirs of the brother.

Athos mysticism and Byzantine gnosis

Franz Spunda: Legends and Frescoes from Mount Athos (1962), front cover page (the photo shown comes from the author himself)

In 1961 Franz Spunda made his fourth and last trip to Mount Athos. He spent a long time among the monks and in various monastic communities to prepare his book Legends and Frescoes from Mount Athos (1962) and to take the elaborate photographs. Just as the main characters of his later novels no longer tend towards the hero type, but towards the martyr type, in the last cultural-historical writings of the author life plans under the sign of asceticism and hermitic piety finally come to the fore. From the real example of the representatives of an unconditional devotion to God, Spunda expects the signal for the salvation of Europe sunk in godlessness and historical oblivion:

“We still live in the historical view that our European point of view is the only correct one, although we have to admit that it perverts the natural order of values ​​of things and disregards human dignity.

Not the Athos should be Europeanized, but the other way round, Europe may feel a breath of the Athos in order to regain the lost hierarchy of things, on top of which stands the spirit, which is the measure for everything else. "

Spunda sees the psychosocial reality of the monastic republic under the devastating influence of modernity, which is particularly noticeable through the advance of tourism, but by no means uncritically. He sees the monks reacting to the unsuspecting and irreverent "foreign invasions" with confusion and reticence. Therefore, in contrast to the structure of his first book of Athos, which is dominated by personal experience, Spunda now primarily turns to the witnesses of religious tradition and art: Sensitively and knowledgeably, he opens up icon painting and documents the prayers, sagas and legends circulating on Athos, to save them for a new spiritual beginning.

In addition to the ascetic mysticism of Eastern Christianity, what Spunda is placing his hopes on is the gnostically inspired culture of belief that he historically connects with Byzantium. The novel The Sanctuary of the World (1955) is dedicated to the construction of Hagia Sophia in the time of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora. The architect Anthemios, who was initiated into the secret teachings of Gnosis in Egypt, takes on the task of erecting a building that “is nothing other than the pleroma that has become formed, the sum of the emanations of the divine primal force, the dome of the non-violent divine light of the Gnostics, which is above should shine out all eons ”. The second part of the book contrasts this unique project of the “miracle of light” with the fall of Constantinople and the “darkening” of Europe.

Lyrical late work

Little known and little researched is Franz Spunda's late poetry. Excerpts from it are in the festive edition for the 65th birthday, At home in Europe (1955), as well as in a posthumous selection from the lyrical oeuvre , Die Phädriaden . Poems and Chants (1970), included. The cycle The Royal Man , consisting of strictly composed rhyming poems and classical odes, dactylic and iambic long verses, was completed in 1943, but was not published. The author sees in it the document of his "true convictions of the years 1936 to 1942 [...], an ideal image of humanity in the sense of Plato".

In the last two years of life, the Proverbs emerged , a spiritual legacy that endeavors to achieve epigrammatic density. The cycle Die Phädriaden - already planned for 1960 as a book edition with a foreword by Carl Julius Haidvogel - refers in the title to the rock face near Delphi, which plays an important role in the ancient myth. Spunda interprets it as a natural revelation of the secret kept secret by the oracle site itself:

"[...] A spring of light turned into stone / from below upwards / cascade of fluorescent material turned into stone / from above downwards. - / But where is up there, where down there / In the gloss area? / Light is the reason / why something is / the eye is the star and the forehead / which understands it. / But we only deserve a quiet astonishment / That regains itself / In the reflection of happy vision. [...] "

In contrast to the first lyrical cycle that Spunda designed based on the experience of Greece, the Eleusinian sonnets (created since 1924), which were declared as "Poems of a Greek Journey" , these are now large-scale reflective poems in free rhythms. The high style, the gnomish speaking, the dark parables and the archetypal landscape metaphor revolve around the philosophical basic conviction of the poet: Man himself creates the god to whom he owes his existence. The high is not without the low, the internal not without the external, the soul not without the body and the spirit not without nature - and vice versa. As a substitute, art must look at the dark abyss in order to be able to foresee the shining stars of the hereafter in this world.

Afterlife

In addition to the nurturing, sometimes transfigured memories that Franz Spunda's work and historical personality learned from the self-literature of the ethnic Germans who were expelled from Bohemia and Moravia, after the author's death it was above all the fantastic early work that met with continued interest. In parallel to the various conjunctions of literary fantasy in the late 20th century, the "magical" novels were reprinted several times, while the other writings tended to be forgotten.

In the late 1980s, literary studies began to systematically grapple with the German-language fantasy of the early 20th century, which included Franz Spunda (including Franz Rottensteiner, Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf, Marianne Wünsch). Around the turn of the century, some studies raised these efforts to a high theoretical level and embedded them in an analysis of the contemporary development of the peripheral and marginal, occult-esoteric text cultures, the forms of discourse of magic and sorcery (including Clemens Ruthner, Robert Stockhammer, Hans Richard Brittnacher ).

Relatively independent of his presence in these areas of academic interest, Spunda, as a representative of a völkisch-national-conservative literary policy of the interwar period and the “Anschluss” years, attracted the interest of the ideology-critical German studies of the 1980s and 90s who tried to come to terms with the recent past Klaus Amann, Karl Müller, Murray G. Hall).

Substantial steps to open up the writer's work in all its breadth and ambiguity from a literary perspective, however, were only taken around the 125th anniversary of Spunda's birthday. Analyzing and documenting anthologies emerged from the conferences in Olomouc (2014) and Vienna (2015).

Book publications

• Hymns . Georg Müller, Munich 1919 (= books of time).
• Astralis. Dithyrambs and chants . Eduard Strache, Vienna-Prague-Leipzig 1920 (= the new word).
• The Liberation. An act . Graphic workshop, Vienna 1921.
• Devachan . Magical novel . Eduard Strache, Vienna-Prague-Leipzig 1921; Ansata, Schwarzenburg 1980.
• The yellow and the white Pope . A magical novel . Rikola, Vienna-Leipzig-Munich 1923 (= novels and books of magic, vol. [4]).
• The magical poet . Essays. Wolkenwanderer-Verlag, Leipzig 1923.
• God's fire . Poems . Wolkenwanderer-Verlag, Leipzig 1924.
• The Egyptian Book of the Dead. A necromantic novel . Rikola, Vienna-Leipzig-Munich 1924 (novels and books of magic, vol. [5]); Hess, Bad Schussenried 2004, ISBN 3-87336-233-3 .
• Paracelsus . Karl König, Vienna 1925 (= people, peoples, times, vol. VI).
• Greek trip . With pen drawings by J. Wentscher and 24 plates. German Book Community, Berlin 1926.
• Greek monks . Georg Müller, Munich 1928 (= Religio. Religious figures and currents).
• The holy Mount Athos. Landscape and legend . With 40 picture panels. Insel, Leipzig 1928.
• Baphomet. An alchemical novel . Working group for culture and construction, Munich 1928; Festa, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-86552-073-9 .
• Minos or The Birth of Europe . Novel . Adam Kraft, Karlsbad 1931 (= Sudeten German Book Association).
• Greek adventure. Novel . Adam Kraft, Karlsbad 1932 (= Sudeten German Book Association).
• Eleusinian sonnets. Poems from a Greek journey . Rabenpresse, Berlin 1933.
• Romulus. Novel . Paul Zsolnay, Berlin-Vienna-Leipzig 1934.
• Wulfila . Novel . Paul Zsolnay, Berlin-Vienna-Leipzig 1936.
• Alaric. Novel . Paul Zsolnay, Berlin-Vienna-Leipzig 1937.
• The empire without people . Novel . Paul Zsolnay, Berlin-Vienna-Leipzig 1938.
• Greece. Trips to the old gods . With 64 picture plates. Insel, Leipzig 1938.
• Sudetenland. Acting in a prelude and nine pictures . Albert Langen / Georg Müller Theaterverlag, Berlin 1939 [as a stage manuscript].
• Tyrant of God. The novel of Pope Boniface and his time . Paul Zsolnay, Berlin-Vienna-Leipzig 1941.
• Paracelsus' worldview . Wilhelm Andermann, Vienna 1941; Edition Pleroma, Frankfurt a. M. 2016 [photomechanical reprint of the first edition], ISBN 978-3-939647-33-1 .
• The gentleman from the Hradschin. Roman Emperor Charles IV . KH Bischoff, Berlin-Vienna-Leipzig 1942; Hess, Bad Schussenried 2007, ISBN 978-3-87336-337-3 .
• History of the Medici . F. Bruckmann, Munich 1944.
• Burned by God's fire. Giordano Bruno's novel of life . Festungsverlag, Salzburg 1949.
• Clara Petacci. A novel about Mussolini's lover . Zimmer & Herzog, Berchtesgaden 1952.
• Hella's torch lights up. Novel of the Philhellenes 1821 . Bischoff, Laichingen-Stuttgart 1953 [new version of the novel Greek Adventure from 1932].
• Roman carnival. Novel . Pallas-Verlag, Salzburg-Straubing 1953.
• The sanctuary of the world. Gnostic novel . Pallas publishing house, Salzburg-Hamburg 1955; Edition Pleroma, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-939647-04-1 .
• Giorgione's love song. Novel of an artist's life . Eduard Wancura, Vienna-Stuttgart 1955.
• At home in Europe. Experienced and imagined. Celebration for the 65th birthday . Ed .: Richard Zimprich. Quellenverlag, Steinheim a. M. 1955 (= from Moravian plaice, vol. 1).
• Ride to the old gods. A book on Greece . Ullstein, Vienna-Berlin 1956.
• Spring annals . Josef Faber, Krems ad D. 1957 (= Book Community Heimatland, Vol. 8).
• Herakleitos, the thinker between battles. Novel poetry . JA Kienreich, Graz 1957.
• The mystical life of Jakob Boehme . Hermann Bauer, Freiburg i. Br. 1961; Edition Pleroma, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-939647-03-4 .
• Legends and frescoes from Mount Athos . With 27 colored illustrations. JF Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1962
• Youth in Olomouc. "Spring Annals" . Quellenverlag V. Diwisch, Steinheim a. M. 1966 (= series of publications of the Olomouc and Central Moravia Association, Vol. 15).
• The phedriads . Poems and chants . Foreword by Richard Zimprich. Bruno Langer, Esslingen a. N. 1970.
• The way to Delphi . Foreword by Karl J. Trauner. International publishing house for literature and poetry, Vienna 1987.
• Plato. Novel poetry . 2 volumes. Vol. 1: Youth and years of travel ; Vol. 2: Philosopher and world teacher. Edition Pleroma, Frankfurt a. M. 2012, ISBN 978-3-939647-12-6 .

As translator and editor:

• Francesco Petrarca: Sonnets. Selected and transferred. Heidelberg: Saturn Verlag Hermann Meister (= The Little Saturn Books, Vol. 30/32).
• Francesco Petrarca: Sonnets . Selected for the best translations. Munich: Georg Müller 1920.
• Pietro Aretino: Courtesan Talks . Transfer to selection. Leipzig: Georg Wigand 1922 (= Galante Library).
• Giacomo Leopardi: Poems [translation]. Leipzig: Wolkenwanderer-Verlag 1923.
• Theophrastus Paracelsus: Magical instructions of the noble and highly learned Philosophi and Medici Philippi Theophrasti Bombasti von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus. Leipzig: Wolkenwanderer-Verlag 1923.
• Ossian's works. Fingal and the little epics. Temora and the little seals . Transferred rhythmically. 2 volumes. Leipzig: Wolkenwanderer-Verlag 1924.
• Escape from the world. Records of a missing person . Vienna: Spiegel Verlag 1928.
• Magical tales from France . Selected and transferred. Villach: Moritz Stadler 1948 (= books of magic).

literature

• Georg Hallmann et al. Ernst Metelmann: Franz Spunda . In: Die Schöne Literatur , Vol. 28, H. 10 (October 1927), pp. 433–437.
• Gertrud Herzog-Hauser: Franz Spunda . In: Witiko. Journal for Art and Poetry , vol. 2, no. 2, Eger 1929, pp. 79–81.
• Robert Cermak: The Magical Novel (Hanns Heinz Ewers - Gustav Meyrink - Franz Spunda ), Phil. Diss. (Mach.), Vienna 1949.
• Richard Zimprich: Franz Spunda and his work . In: Franz Spunda: At home in Europe. Experienced and imagined. Ceremony for the 65th birthday , Ed .: Richard Zimprich, Quellenverlag, Steinheim a. M. (= From Moravian plaice, Vol. 1), pp. 3–27.
• Johanna Spunda: Franz Spunda . In: Moravian-Silesian Homeland. Quarterly journal for culture and economy , vol. 10, no. 1 (March 1965), pp. 35–42.
• Ludvík E. Václavek: How did Franz Spunda enrich German-language literature? In: Germanistica Olomucensia , Jg. 1 (1971), pp. 24–46, reprinted in: Lucy Topol'ská u. Ludvík E. Václavek: Contributions to German-language literature in the Czech Republic , Ed .: Ingeborg Fiala-Fürst, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Olomouc 2000 (= Contributions to Moravian German-language literature, vol. 3), pp. 162-188, also in: Franz Spunda in context. Anthology for the international conference, organized on 3-4. October 2014 in Olomouc , Ed .: Lukáš Motyčka, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Olomouc 2015 (= contributions to German-Moravian literature, vol. 29), 2015, pp. 171–202.
• Franz Rottensteiner u. Uli Kohnle: Franz Spunda . In: Bibliographisches Lexikon der Utopisch-Fantastischen Literatur , Ed .: Joachim Körber, Vol. 13, 12. Erg.-Lfg., Meitingen, December 1987 [Loseblattausg.].
• Karl Müller: turning points without consequences. The long life of literary anti-modernism in Austria since the 1930s , Otto Müller, Salzburg 1990 [on Spunda, pp. 189–200].
• Clemens Ruthner: Eerie return. Interpretations of the ghostly fictional characters by Ewers , Meyrink, Soyka , Spunda and Strobl , Corian Verlag, Meitingen 1993. ISBN 3-89048-119-1
• Eduard Wondrák: Paracelsus and his Olomouc admirer Franz Spunda . In: A cta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis. Facultas Philosophica Philologica , Vol. 66 / VIII (1993): Germanica Olomucensia , pp. 57-74.
• Robert Stockhammer: Magic Texts. The return of magic and literature 1880-1945 , Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2000 (plus Habil.-Schr., Berlin 1997).
• Clemens Ruthner: On the edge. Canon, cultural economy and the intertextuality of the marginal, using the example of (Austrian) fantasy in the 20th century , Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2004.
• Helena Navrátilová: The discussion about the meaning of Rudolf Pannwitz in the correspondence between Franz Spunda and August Messer . In: Bridges. Germanistic Yearbook Czech Republic Slovakia, vol. 18 (2010), pp. 111–117.
• Christopher Meid: Imaginations of Greece. Travel reports in the 20th century from Gerhart Hauptmann to Wolfgang Koeppen , De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2012 (= linguae & litterae, vol. 15) [on Spunda pp. 201–230, 310–318].
• Friedrich Karl Nielsen: Between the Volkskirche and Rome. Reception of the church struggle in the novel of the 1930s by Karl Hans Strobl, Franz Spunda and Margot Boger , Germanist. Dipl.arb. (Ts.), Vienna 2012.
• Wolf Gerhard Schmidt: "Homer of the North" and "Mother of Romanticism". James Macpherson's Ossian and his reception in German-language literature , 2 vol., De Gruyter, Berlin 2013 [on Spunda pp. 1117–1126].
• Lukáš Motyčka (Ed.): Franz Spunda in context. Anthology for the international conference, organized on 3-4. October 2014 in Olomouc , Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Filozofická fakulta, Olomouc 2015 (= contributions to German-Moravian literature, vol. 29).
• Christoph Fackelmann u. Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963). German-Moravian writer, magical poet, pilgrim to Greece. Studies and texts , LIT Verlag, Vienna 2016 (= income from Bohemian-Moravian research, vol. 11).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Franz Spunda: The magical poet . Leipzig 1923, p. 11 .
2. ↑ Franz Spunda: The song from the depths . In: The Augarten . tape 7 , no. 5 . Vienna May 1942, p. 197-203 .
3. ↑ Franz Spunda: Legends and frescoes from Mount Athos . Stuttgart 1962, p. 66 .
4. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the biographical information follows: Christoph Fackelmann: Bio-bibliographische Chronik . In: Christoph Fackelmann, Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963) . Vienna 2016, p. 65-97 .
5. ^ Franz Spunda: Youth in Olomouc. "Spring Annals" . Steinheim a. M. 1966, p. 5 f .
6. ^ Murray G. Hall: Robert Musil and the Association of German Writers in Austria . In: Austria in history and literature with geography . tape 21 , no. 5 , 1977, pp. 202-221, esp. 210 f .
7. ^ Klaus Amann: PEN Politics - Emigration - National Socialism. An Austrian writers' club. Vienna, Cologne, Graz 1984, pp. 206 ff .
8. ↑ Klaus Amann: Payday. The connection of Austrian writers to the Third Reich. 2nd Edition. Bodenheim 1996, p. 69, 76, 116 ff., 192 ff., 208 ff .
9. ^ Murray G. Hall: The Paul Zsolnay publishing house. From the foundation to the return from exile. Tübingen 1994, p. 464-468 .
10. ↑ On the journalistic environment cf. Christoph Fackelmann: "The Augarten" . In: Herbert Zeman (Hrsg.): Bio-bibliographic lexicon of Austrian literature . tape 1 . Freiburg i. Br., Berlin, Vienna 2016, p. 257-261 .
11. ^ Claudia Strohdorfer: The Central Commission to Combat Nazi Literature and the Franz Spunda case . In: Lukáš Motyčka (Ed.): Franz Spunda in context . Olomouc 2015, p. 163-169 .
12. ↑ On the processes of "denazification" around Spunda cf. also: Karl Müller: turning points without consequences. The long life of literary anti-modernism in Austria since the 1930s . Salzburg 1990, p. 198-200 .
13. ^ Franz Spunda grave site , Vienna, Ober Sankt Veiter Friedhof, Group Q, Row 1, No. 1.
14. ^ Street names in Vienna since 1860 as "Political Places of Remembrance" (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 78 ff., Final research project report, Vienna, July 2013.
15. ↑ Jörg Krappmann: Meta- and paratextual considerations on the role of the First World War in Franz Spunda's early work . In: Lukáš Motyčka (Ed.): Franz Spunda in context . Olomouc 2015, p. 145-162 .
16. ^ Franz Spunda: Poetic tasks of the occult myth (1925) . In: Christoph Fackelmann, Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963) . Vienna 2016, p. 177-184 .
17. ↑ Franz Spunda: The magical poet . Leipzig 1923, p. 7 .
18. ^ Franz Spunda: Foreword . In: Chajim Bloch (ed.): Life memories of the Kabbalist Vital . Vernay-Verlag, Vienna 1927, p. 11 .
19. ^ Karl Hans Strobl: A magical novel . In: Neues Wiener Journal . December 4, 1921, p. 7 .
20. ^ Robert Stockhammer: Rosicrucian Radioactivity. Alchemy around 1900 . In: Alexandra Lembert, Elmar Schenkel (ed.): The Golden Egg. Alchemy in Art and Literature . Berlin, Cambridge 2002, pp. 133-145, esp. 144 f .
21. ^ Franz Spunda: sketch report of my life (1931) . In: Christoph Fackelmann, Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963) . Vienna 2016, p. 159–161, here 161 .
22. ↑ Franz Spunda: About my life (1937) . In: Christoph Fackelmann, Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963) . Vienna 2016, p. 162–165, here 164 .
23. ^ Franz Spunda: Preface . In: Ossian's works . tape 1 . Leipzig 1924, p. 5 .
24. ↑ See Wolf Gerhard Schmidt: "Homer of the North" and "Mother of Romanticism". James Macpherson's Ossian and its reception in German-language literature . tape 2 . Berlin 2013, p. 1117 .
25. ↑ Wolf Gerhard Schmidt: "Homer of the North" . tape 2 , p. 1117 .
26. ^ Franz Spunda: Paracelsus . Vienna 1925, p. 161 .
27. ^ Franz Spunda: Greece. Trips to the old gods . Leipzig 1938, p. 151 .
28. ^ Franz Spunda: Greece . S. 338 ff .
29. ^ Franz Spunda: Greek journey . Berlin 1926, p. 12, 14 .
30. ^ Franz Spunda: Greek journey . S. 206 .
31. ^ Franz Spunda: The return to Eleusis . In: Franz Spunda (ed.): The magical poet . Leipzig 1923, p. 38 f .
32. ^ Franz Spunda: Greece. Trips to the old gods . Leipzig 1938, p. 403 .
33. ^ Franz Spunda: Greek journey . Berlin 1926, p. 317, 320 .
34. ^ Felix Braun: Greece and Italy . In: New Free Press . Vienna March 13, 1927, p. 33, column 1 (Sunday supplement, p. 1) ( onb.ac.at ).
35. ↑ Quoted from Christoph Fackelmann: “Conservative Revolutionary” art discourses in Franz Spunda's Greek literature . In: Lukáš Motyčka (Ed.): Franz Spunda in context . Olomouc 2015, p. 79 .
36. ^ Hermann R. Leber: Richard Strauss and Greece [with a facsimile of the letter to Franz Spunda v. November 15, 1939] . In: Salzburger Nachrichten . August 14, 1952, p. 3 .
37. ^ Franz Spunda: Task and meaning of the historical novel (1935) . In: Christoph Fackelmann, Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963) . Vienna 2016, p. 197 .
38. ^ Franz Spunda: Task and meaning of the historical novel (1935) . S. 196 f .
39. ↑ Milan Horňáček: The Goth myth in Franz Spunda's "Gothic trilogy" Wulfila , Alarich and Reich without people . In: Lukáš Motyčka (Ed.): Franz Spunda in context . Olomouc 2015, p. 125-143 .
40. ↑ Christoph Fackelmann: Holy Mountains in the Chaos of the World. The writer Franz Spunda between Olomouc and Athos . In: Christoph Fackelmann, Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963) . Vienna 2016, p. 44 .
41. ↑ Christoph Fackelmann: Holy Mountains in the Chaos of the World . S. 45 .
42. ^ Franz Spunda: Ali Pascha by Janina. The last Asian despot in Europe . In: Atlantis. Countries / races / travel . Vol. IV, H. 2. Berlin February 1932, p. 89-99 .
43. ↑ Ludvík E. Václavek: How did Franz Spunda enrich German-language literature? (1971) . In: Lukáš Motyčka (Ed.): Franz Spunda in context . Olomouc 2015, p. 194 f .
44. ↑ Ingeborg Fiala-Fürst: Franz Spunda: Der Herr vom Hradschin . In: Lukáš Motyčka (Ed.): Franz Spunda in context . Olomouc 2015, p. 111-123 .
45. ↑ Christoph Fackelmann: Holy Mountains in the Chaos of the World . In: Christoph Fackelmann, Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963) . Vienna 2016, p. 46-48 .
46. ↑ Steffen Höhne, Franziska Mayer, Manfred Weinberg: Historical novel . In: Peter Becher et al. (Hrsg.): Handbook of German literature in Prague and the Bohemian countries . Stuttgart 2017, p. 364 f .
47. ^ Ludvík Václavek: Franz Spunda . In: Ingeborg Fiala-Fürst et al. (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German-Moravian authors. Supplements . Olomouc 2006, p. 3 (loose-leaf edition) .
48. ↑ Franz Spunda: The song from the depths . In: The Augarten . tape 7 , no. 5 . Vienna May 1942, p. 201 .
49. ^ Franz Spunda: Plato . tape 2 . Frankfurt a. M. 2012, p. 245 .
50. ^ Franz Spunda: Plato . tape 2 , p. 250 .
51. ^ Franz Spunda: Plato . tape 2 , p. 246 .
52. ^ Franz Spunda: Plato . tape 2 , p. 247 .
53. ↑ Ludvík E. Václavek: How did Franz Spunda enrich German-language literature? (1971) . In: Lukáš Motyčka (Ed.): Franz Spunda in context . Olomouc 2015, p. 200 .
54. ↑ Alexander Martin Pfleger: "Because when a god touches you, you go up in flames." Franz Spunda's Giordano Bruno novel . In: Christoph Fackelmann, Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Franz Spunda (1890-1963) . Vienna 2016, p. 138-156, esp. 140, 155 .
55. ↑ Quoted by Richard Zimprich: Franz Spunda and his work . In: Richard Zimprich (Ed.): Franz Spunda. At home in Europe . Steinheim a. M. 1955, p. 24 .
56. ↑ Franz Spunda: Burned by God's fire. Giordano Bruno's novel of life . Salzburg 1949, p. 238, 259, 401 .
57. ↑ Franz Spunda: Burned by God's fire . S. 291 f., 300 f .
58. ↑ Franz Spunda: Burned by God's fire . S. 273 .
59. ↑ Franz Spunda: Burned by God's fire . S. 400 .
60. ^ Johanna Spunda: Franz Spunda . In: Moravian-Silesian Homeland . tape 10 , no. 1 . Steinheim a. M. March 1965, p. 41 .
61. ↑ Franz Spunda: Legends and frescoes from Mount Athos . Stuttgart 1962, p. 67 .
62. ↑ Franz Spunda: Legends and frescoes from Mount Athos . S. 40 .
63. ^ Richard Zimprich: Franz Spunda and his work . In: Richard Zimprich (Ed.): Franz Spunda. At home in Europe . Steinheim a. M. 1955, p. 26 .
64. ↑ "Proof that I had been in opposition to the NSDAP for years" . Supplement to the “Request in accordance with P 27 of the Prohibition Act”, undated typescript, written before April 28, 1948. In: Spunda estate, German Literature Archive Marbach a. N.
65. ↑ Franz Špunda: The Phaedriades . In: Richard Zimprich (Ed.): Franz Spunda: Die Phädriaden. Poems and chants . Esslingen a. N. 1970, p. 89 f .

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Spunda in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literary map of German-Moravian authors