Hedy Kempny

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Hedwig "Hedy" Kempny (born December 21, 1895 in Gutenstein , † May 16, 1986 in New York ) was an Austrian bank clerk and journalist . She is best known today for her friendship with Arthur Schnitzler .

Life

Hedy Kempny was born as the third child of the doctor, natural scientist and composer Peter Kempny . In Vienna she took piano lessons at the conservatory and acting lessons from Ferdinand Gregori . In 1913 she joined the Lower Austrian Escompte Society as a bank clerk .

In 1919 Hedy Kempny began an exchange of letters with the doctor and writer Arthur Schnitzler , and a few months later he met the poet for the first time. From this a friendship developed that lasted until Schnitzler's death in 1931. a. is documented in a correspondence comprising approx. 600 letters and cards.

After the closure of the Lower Austrian Escompte Society in 1934 (Bank Am Hof, 1010 Vienna), she worked in the publishing industry (Phaidon Verlag). At the end of 1938 she moved from Vienna to Zurich, rejecting the new political regime. In 1947 she settled in New York, where she returned to the publishing industry (Ungar Books), from which she did not retire until she was 85.

Since 1926 she wrote regularly for the St. Galler Tagblatt and the Wiener Magazin . In 1985 she was awarded the Golden Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria by the Federal President .

Post fame

In the novel Des Lebens, the fifth act by Volker Hage, about Schnitzler's last years, Kempny also appears.

Publications

  • with Arthur Schnitzler: "The girl with thirteen souls". A correspondence supplemented by sheets from Hedy Kempny's diary and a selection of her stories. Edited and with an afterword by Heinz P. Adamek . Reinbek near Hamburg 1984.

literature

  • Susanne Schaber: Hedy Kempny - Arthur Schnitzler. Diagram of a friendship. Dissertation at the University of Innsbruck in 1989.
  • Heinz P. Adamek: Hedy Kempny and Arthur Schnitzler - a (common) lonely path . Essay in the program booklet for the world premiere of the ballet "Arthur Schnitzler und seine Reigen", Volksoper Wien, Österreichischer Bundestheaterverband, 1988
  • Heinz P. Adamek: Artistic Chords - Diagonal. Essays on art, architecture, literature and society. Vienna: Böhlau 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-20250-9 , pp. 208–223

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Hage: The fifth act of life . Munich: Luchterhand 2018, ISBN 978-3-630-87592-7 .
personal data
SURNAME Kempny, Hedy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kempny, Hedwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian bank employee and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Gutenstein
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1986
Place of death new York