Grete von Urbanitzky

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Grete von Urbanitzky (born July 9, 1891 in Linz , Austria-Hungary , † November 4, 1974 in Geneva ) was an Austrian writer , translator and journalist .

Life

Her novels dealt primarily with the position of women and artists in society and the public at that time, thematized female homosexuality as well as criticism of the existing, bourgeois sexual morality . Her reputation reached beyond Austria's borders as early as the twenties: Máo Dùn , one of the most important novelists in contemporary Chinese literature, introduced Grete von Urbanitzky as a promising young writer, quote: Grete von Urbanitzky is the most famous of the young Austrian writers. .

Despite her ideas of freedom with regard to sexuality and existing friendships with Jewish writers such as Felix Salten , Nelly Sachs and Gertrud Isolani , Grete von Urbanitzky's political views were deeply nationalist.She lived in Berlin from 1933 , showed solidarity with German national writers, and refused to give up at the PEN Congress in Ragusa condemned the book burning by the National Socialists and, last but not least, initiated the split of the Austrian PEN Club , which she co-founded in 1923 and of which she was the first General Secretary.

Despite her attitude towards National Socialism, some of her works were indexed in Germany as early as 1934, and her entire works were banned in 1941. After her mother had increasingly become the victim of reprisals, Grete von Urbanitzky felt compelled to emigrate to France, whereupon she distanced herself from her previous attitude towards National Socialism . After the Second World War she vainly claimed to have been a victim of National Socialism. She could no longer build on her previous literary successes and most recently worked as a correspondent for the United Nations in Geneva, where she died in 1974.

Works (selection)

  • Hate song against Italy , words by G. v. Urbanitzky, AR Bleibtreu. Setting to Artur Löwenstein, Krenn, Vienna 1915.
  • The other blood , Roman, R. Wunderlich, Leipzig 1920.
  • Der verflgee Vogel , poems, Vienna Literary Institute, Vienna 1920.
  • The Emigrants , Roman, Wiener Literarian Anstalt, Vienna 1921.
  • The golden whip , Roman, Hermann Haessel , Leipzig 1922. (Online at ALO ).
  • Masks of love , short stories, Haessel, Leipzig 1922.
  • Maria Alborg , Roman, Haessel, Leipzig 1923.
  • Mirjam's son , Roman, Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1926.
  • The wild garden , Roman, Hesse and Becker, Leipzig 1927. (Online at ALO ).
  • A woman experiences the world , Roman, Zsolnay, Berlin-Vienna-Leipzig 1934.
  • Homecoming to love , Roman, Zsolnay, Berlin 1935.
  • Nina , Roman, Zsolnay, Berlin 1935.
  • Karin and the world of men , Roman, Zsolnay, Berlin 1937.
  • It started in September ... , Roman, Scherz Verlag, Bern 1940.
  • Encounter in Alassio , Roman, Neues Österreich, Vienna 1951.

In addition to her own work, she also translated from English, Italian and French, etc. A. by Claude Anet .

literature

  • Ursula Huber: Grete von Urbanitzky - unloved party member of the National Socialists , 1993. In: L 'homme , Vienna-Cologne-Weimar, 4/1993.
  • Verena Humer : The forgotten work of Grete von Urbanitzky. An (exceptional) woman between adaptation and subversion . In: Aneta Jachimowicz (Hrsg.): Against the canon - literature of the interwar period in Austria . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 315–326.
  • Viktoria Pötzl: “Lesbian literature and the interwar period. Myth and demythification using the example of Grete von Urbanitzky's wild garden ”In: Journal of Austrian Studies . vol. 51, no 4: University of Nebraska Press. 2018. pp. 63–82.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry "Urbanitzky, Grete von" in Munzinger Online / Personen - Internationales Biographisches Archiv, accessed on April 29, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Urbanitzky, Grete von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer, translator and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Linz
DATE OF DEATH 4th November 1974
Place of death Geneva