Manon Gropius

Manon Gropius with her parents Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius (1918)

Manon Gropius' tomb in Vienna

Manon Gropius (full name Manon Alma Anna Justine Caroline Gropius, nickname: Mutzi ; * October 5, 1916 in Vienna , † April 22, 1935 ibid) was the daughter of Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler-Werfel . Her half-sister Anna Mahler was the daughter of Alma Mahler-Werfel's first marriage with the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler . She received the first name Alma after her mother, the first name Manon after the mother of her father Manon Gropius nee. Scharnweber (1855-1933).

Numerous contemporary witnesses such as Elias Canetti or Ernst Krenek report in their memoirs how Alma Mahler-Werfel , who was strongly influenced by anti - Semitism , always emphasized the Aryan ancestry of her daughter, who, unlike her half-siblings, was not married to a Jew. They tell how the good-looking as well as the acting talented daughter - who, however, was rather reserved in nature - was presented by her mother as a "showpiece". Oliver Hilmes (biographer of Alma Mahler-Werfel) also points out that the mother made efforts to marry the young girl to the much older Austrian politician Anton Rintelen .

Manon Gropius fell ill with polio during a stay in Venice in April 1934 . At the time, a polio epidemic that was concealed by public authorities was rampant there. A year later, on April 22, 1935, she died of complications from the disease at the age of 18. The funeral was a major social event. The theologian and religious priest Johannes Hollnsteiner , at the time her mother's lover, gave the funeral speech. A necrology by Ludwig Karpath appeared in a Viennese newspaper. Alban Berg composed his concerto for violin and orchestra for Manon Gropius and called it In Memory of an Angel . Her stepfather Franz Werfel described her life and death in two stories (including Manon ).

Manon Gropius is buried with her mother Alma Mahler-Werfel in the Grinzinger Friedhof (group 6, row 6, number 7) in Vienna.

literature

Oliver Hilmes: widow delusional. The life of the Alma Mahler-Werfel . Siedler, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-88680-797-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Gropiusstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )

personal data
SURNAME	Gropius, Manon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gropius, Manon Alma Anna Justine Caroline (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius
DATE OF BIRTH	October 5, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vienna
DATE OF DEATH	April 22, 1935
Place of death	Vienna

[1] Gropiusstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )