Gustav Hackl

Gustav Hackl (born August 2, 1892 in Vordernberg ; † January 4, 1962 in Leoben ) was an Austrian writer.

Life

Gustav Hackl was born as the son of master locksmith Johann and his wife Karolina Hackl in Vordernberg in Styria . The parents had moved from Dolní Branná (Hennersdorf), Vrchlabí (German Hohenelbe) district in the Bohemian Giant Mountains to Vordernberg. Gustav came from a large family. He was the eighth of twelve children.

After the fourth grade in elementary school, he entered the collegiate high school St. Paul in Lavanttal as a choir boy . In St. Paul he made the acquaintance of Switbert Lobisser , who became a well-known master wood carver and painter and with whom he had a lifelong friendship. As a result of the broken voice, he had to say goodbye to St. Paul and continued his school education in Leoben . After graduating from high school, he devoted himself to studying medicine in Graz and Munich. In 1919 he received his doctorate in medicine from the Karl Franzens University in Graz.

Hackl was buried in his parents' grave at the local cemetery in his home town of Vordernberg. The grave was abandoned after 2008.

The doctor

After completing his studies, Hackl worked for a short time in the Hörgas-Enzenbach pulmonary hospital. From 1921 he found a job as a young works doctor in the steel industry town of Donawitz and tried to reform medical care for the benefit of industrial workers and their families. He developed the almost forgotten Auenbrugger method for the diagnosis of TB, with which one could determine a suspected TBC by tapping (percussion) of the patient's chest. After he was promoted to head of the works hospital, Hackl had welfare stations built in the Leoben district in order to put a stop to the rampant tuberculosis and high child mortality rates.

The writer

Hackl's first literary attempts began in the St. Paul Abbey. For the little free time, the doctor and poet had set up a quiet place for himself far away from everyday stress, where he could find the peace and leisure he wanted for his literary work. In the gate tower above the entrance to the Maria Freienstein pilgrimage church , he set up his poet's hermitage with his own sense of style. In his spare time he fled into this remote room, where his imaginative stories were written. He brought historical events closer to the present and descended into a “blossoming fantasy”, as if he wanted to write from his soul all the suffering that he had encountered in his job. An example of this are the poems to Maria Rack, to which Hackl was inspired by personal experiences from his professional activity. In these fine, gossamer poems, he introduces the reader to a girl who has tuberculosis. In the twenties of the 20th century the area around Donawitz was hit by this terrible epidemic.

Hackl's most important works should also be mentioned: a number of poems; Novellas such as the Vordernberger, Eisenerzer and Gösser novellas as well as stories and novels such as “Mitzi Jenull”, “Der Silberblick” and the editing of the Stampfer's house book .

Sources, individual references

1. ↑ LKH Hörgas-Enzenbach .
2. ^ Konrad Maritschnik: "Gustav Hackl, choirboy, doctor and poet" in Neues Land, Graz January 28, 2005