Marta Karlweis

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Marta Wassermann-Karlweis , also Marta Stross ; The pseudonym Barbara Vogel (born April 27, 1889 in Vienna , † November 2, 1965 in Lugano ) was an Austrian writer .

Life and work up to emigration

Marta Karlweis was the daughter of the director of the Südbahn-Gesellschaft Carl Karlweis (1850–1901), who wrote plays in the Viennese dialect as a hobby. Her brother Oskar Karlweis began an acting career in Vienna in 1912. Like Maria Lazar , Marta attended the Eugenie Schwarzwald school , the so-called "Black Forest School" on Vienna's Franziskanerplatz , where several prominent representatives of Viennese cultural life taught, including Adolf Loos and Oskar Kokoschka . In Vienna she also frequented the well-known salon of Berta Zuckerkandl , where she read from her works over and over again. Against the wishes of her guardian - her father died when she was 12 - she began studying psychology at the University of Vienna after graduating from high school , which she broke off in 1907 to marry the industrialist Walter Stross. The daughters Bianka (* 1908) and Emmy (* 1910) emerged from this marriage.

In February 1915 she met the writer Jakob Wassermann in the house of her sister-in-law Emmy Wellesz , the wife of the composer Egon Wellesz . In August 1919 they moved to Altaussee together . Their son Carl Ulrich (Charles) was born on February 21, 1924. She married Aquarius in 1926; it was a second marriage for both of them.

With her penultimate work, the novel An Austrian Don Juan published in 1929, she seems to have finally established herself on the book market of that time. One year after its publication, the sophisticated New York publisher Ives Washburn is bringing out an American translation under the title The Viennese lover . The novel, which was sometimes enthusiastically discussed when it was published, aims at the merciless disenchantment of the monarchy and wants to reconstruct the underlying causes of its dissolution. The novel ingeniously reveals the moral ambiguity of the ruling classes at the time of the ending Habsburg monarchy : The wealthy Viennese Baron Erwein von Raidt is a womanizer as he is in the book. He quickly drops his relationship with the beautiful widow Löwenstein when he meets her charming 21-year-old daughter Cecile. After she becomes pregnant, he breaks off contact with her on the spot. In order to preserve the decor , he couples her with an unsuspecting industrialist. When Cecile finally sees through the true character of Erwein von Raidts, she is terminally ill. For the once unscrupulous womanizer and bon vivant , the years go by with love adventures, seductions and conquests - until his last lover transforms him and makes him her slave.

A new edition of the long-forgotten novel by the Viennese publisher "Das vergierter Buch" was funded in 2015 by the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria .

In 2017 the new edition of her last work, the satirical-grotesque novel Schwindel took place. Story of a reality from 1931 in the same publisher. The Austrian Germanist Karl Wagner locates Karlweis' narrative method between Expressionism and New Objectivity :

“Only Federfuchser will book their narrator comments as outdated technology, in truth it is about strategies that break the limitations of the inner monologue without disavowing its achievement. [...] In contrast to many of today's generational and family novels, there is no monotonous plot. The text jumps around, works episodically and changes the narrative perspective within the often sarcastically titled sections. Instead of temporal-causal courses of action, there are metaphorical links, resumed details, corresponding formulas and formulations or memorable clauses. Such changes in the perspective of the figure are lost without careful reading, and it is not without good reason that a contemporary reviewer, EA Rheinhardt, felt himself reminded of Virginia Woolf in view of the astonishing details of this book, because even with Karlweis every detail, without impressionistic individuality, was entirely in the Service of narrative is provided '. "

- Karl Wagner : Der Falter 33/17

Reception of An Austrian Don Juan

Marta Karlweis' work, published in Vienna in 1929, was reviewed in various newspapers . The writer Rudolf Jeremias Kreutz wrote in the Neue Freie Presse :

“ This born seducer, who is all the more fortunate with women as he - true to his great role model - operates without any involvement of his heart, a stone guest of his own lovemaking and in one breath a hot gallant, even self-sacrificing, childish women servant, this archetype the seedy, always unfortunate gambler, cannot be outlined more vividly, nor can it be interpreted in a more gruesome light than Marta Karlweis succeeds in doing. "

- Rudolf Jeremias Kreutz : Neue Freie Presse, December 22, 1929

The critic and theater man Joseph Chapiro enthusiastically wrote a review in the Neue Wiener Journal in 1930 :

“ A diamond is set in her pen, which throws blinding light on some pages of her work, pages that grasp and shake us and force us to offer them permanent asylum in our memories. "

- Joseph Chapiro : Neues Wiener Journal, December 2, 1930

In his review for the Süddeutsche Zeitung on the occasion of the new edition of the novel by the Viennese publishing house The Forgotten Book, Florian Welle speaks of an "X-ray sharp character study":

“ After Maria Lazar, Marta Karlweis is the second author to be rediscovered thanks to the publishing house 'Das vergierter Buch'. [...] Whoever wants can read the novel 'An Austrian Don Juan' published in 1929 psychoanalytically - the womanizer is called Erwein von Raidt and is a pronounced shoe fetishist. The eight chapters are preceded by an X-ray sharp character study by Erwein von Raidts, which identifies him as a cold eccentric. The bitterly angry novel is then about how 'the Jew girl' Cecile is thrown into ruin. It takes place before the First World War, and like Joseph Roth, Karlweis's real interest is the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. But she is far from any nostalgia. A bigoted, misogynous operetta company is exposed. "

- Florian Welle : Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 12, 2016

The literary scholar Franz Haas made a more nuanced comment on the Marta Karlweis case in his review of the new edition of the epoch novel in the Austrian standard :

“ Most thoroughly forgotten in literary history are those women whose works National Socialism destroyed. Marta Karlweis (1889–1965) and her wickedly sparkling novel Ein Österreichischer Don Juan from 1929, which the German scholar Johann Sonnleitner has now expertly re-edited, is such a blatant case. It narrates a series of unkindnesses against the background of the last decades of the Habsburg monarchy in an astute and pointed tongues. This swan song for the not so good old days reminds a little of Joseph Roth, but even more of Ödön von Horváth, who is more resistant to nostalgia. The author has artistically interwoven a lot of bitterly angry stories from the Viennese city in this moral picture. "

- Franz Haas : Der Standard, May 24, 2016

exile

The rise of National Socialism meant an irreparable turning point for many literary careers in Germany. On January 1, 1934, her husband Jakob Wassermann died of a stroke after trying unsuccessfully to get an advance payment for his writing activities. As the last of her books, the then 45-year-old Marta published her husband's biography in the Querido publishing house in Amsterdam . In some cases she published articles in Swiss and Austrian periodicals . In his epilogue to the new edition of the novel Ein Österreichischer Don Juan published by the Viennese publishing house "Das vergierter Buch" at the end of 2015, the Germanist Johann Sonnleitner sees the reason for its "complete disappearance from German-language literature" primarily in the Nazi cultural policy, which also took place in the former Austria and the corporate state radiated. Why Marta Karlweis was no longer rehabilitated literarily after 1945, however, is mainly due to the post-war German studies, which manifested "a decided and from today's perspective shameful disinterest in the literature of the expellees".

After the death of her second husband, their middle-class living conditions changed dramatically. She moved to Switzerland, resumed her psychology studies and studied analytical psychology with Carl Gustav Jung . After the annexation of Austria , she went into exile in Canada. In 1939 she took on a teaching position at McGill University in Montreal . She worked in her psychiatric practice in Ottawa until her death . Marta Karlweis died on November 2, 1965 on a trip to Switzerland during which she wanted to visit her daughter Bianka, who lived in Ticino.

Works

  • The sorcerer's apprentice. A story. Süddeutsche Monatshefte , Munich 1913.
  • Diana Island. Novel. Berlin 1919.
  • The feast on Dubrowitza. Berlin 1921. (New edition in DVB (The Forgotten Book) Verlag, Vienna 2017. Edited by an afterword by Johann Sonnleitner. ISBN 978-3-9504158-7-2 )
  • A woman travels through America. Preliminary remark by Jakob Wassermann. Berlin 1928.
  • Cupid and Psyche on their travels. Novel. Accompanying word Jakob Wassermann. Berlin 1928.
  • An Austrian Don Juan. Novel. Leipzig 1929. (New edition in DVB (The Forgotten Book) Verlag, Vienna 2015. Ed. And with an afterword by Johann Sonnleitner. ISBN 978-3-200-04259-9 )
  • Dizziness. Novel. Berlin 1931. (New edition in DVB (The Forgotten Book) Verlag, Vienna 2017. Ed. And with an afterword by Johann Sonnleitner. ISBN 978-3-9504158-4-1 )
  • Jacob Wassermann. Image, struggle and work. Preface by Thomas Mann. Amsterdam 1935.
  • as Marta Wassermann: On the question of post partum neurosis, Psyche , vol. 11, no. 2, 1957, pp. 140–155.

literature

  • Johann Sonnleitner: daughter, wife and mother of important men. The poet Marta Karlweis. In: An Austrian Don Juan. DVB, Vienna 2015, pp. 241–265
  • Johann Sonnleitner: Historical facade dismantling. To Marta Karlweis "The Banquet at Dubrowitza." In: The Banquet on Dubrowitza . DVB, Vienna 2017, pp. 179–211
  • Caroline Lischka: November 2015 : Motifs in Marta Karlweis' novel “Amor and Psyche on a Trip”, University of Vienna
  • Bettina Fraisl: The animal in her - body, nature and gender in Marta Karlweis' novel “Die Insel der Diana” , University of Graz , Special Research Area Modern, accessed on May 3, 2013
  • Joseph Chapiro: Martha Karlweis. Neues Wiener Journal , No. 13003/1930, Volume 38, December 2, 1930, p. 22
  • Rudolf Jeremias Kreutz : A Disillusionist Novel. Neue Freie Presse, December 22, 1929 (the predecessor organ of "Die Presse")
  • Bettina Eibel-Steiner: Vienna's bourgeoisie disintegrates in these novels. The press , features. June 8, 2017, p. 21
  • Karl Wagner: "House owners have also died." In “Schwindel” Marta Karlweis confidently and satirically sharp tells the story of a family's decline. Der Falter , 33, 2017, features section, p. 27

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Johann Sonnleitner: Daughter, wife and mother of important men. The poet Marta Karlweis (1889–1965). In: Marta Karlweis: An Austrian Don Juan. DVB Verlag, Vienna 2015, p. 241f.
  2. ↑ Your son worked in Canada as a reporter and media journalist: Charles Wassermann , 1924 - 1978, in the Altaussee Literature Museum
  3. ↑ An Austrian Don Juan - Marta Karlweis. Retrieved January 31, 2016 .
  4. ^ Re-edition of Marta Karlweis' novel "An Austrian Don Juan" (1929) by the Vienna DFB Verlag. In: Future Fund of the Republic of Austria. DVB Verlag, July 1, 2015, accessed on January 31, 2016 .
  5. ^ Re-edition of Marta Karlweis' last novel "Schwindel" (1931) by DVB Verlag in Vienna. In: Future Fund of the Republic of Austria. DVB Verlag, May 31, 2017, accessed on August 17, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Review
  7. ^ Johann Sonnleitner: Daughter, wife and mother of important men. The poet Marta Karlweis (1889–1965). In: Marta Karlweis: An Austrian Don Juan. DVB Verlag, Vienna 2015, pp. 241–265, here p. 252.
personal data
SURNAME Karlweis, Marta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wassermann-Karlweis, Marta; Vogel, Barbara (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1965
Place of death Lugano