Oskar Maurus Fontana

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Oskar Maurus Fontana (born April 13, 1889 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died May 4, 1969 there ) was an Austrian storyteller, playwright, poet, theater critic and journalist.

Life

After studying philosophy at the University of Vienna, Oskar Maurus Fontana turned exclusively to writing and journalistic activities. He was a soldier in the First World War and, after being a theater advisor for the “Waage” and the “Schaubühne”, then became a permanent theater critic for the “Achtuhr-Abendblatt” and “Tag”.

In his youth Fontana had connections to the expressionist movement and contacts with Oskar Kokoschka , Albert Ehrenstein , Berthold Viertel and cultivated a friendship with Robert Musil . In 1917 Fontana was editor of the expressionist magazine "Das Flugblatt" with Alfons Wallis . In 1918 his first novel was published, "The Awakening".

In 1933 Fontana took a stand against National Socialism at the PEN congress in Ragusa , he was one of the signatories of the resolution of the Austrian PEN Club against Hitler's Germany, all of which except himself and Rudolf Jeremias Kreutz went into exile after the annexation of Austria . Fontana wrote, for example in the newspaper “ Der Wiener Tag ”, against National Socialism. His writings were already on the “ List of harmful and undesirable literature ” of the Reich Chamber of Literature in 1935 .

In 1938, Fontana registered with the “ Reich Association of the German Press ” in order to obtain admission as a journalist. Until February 1939 he was only able to publish illegally and under a pseudonym in the " Neue Wiener Tagblatt ", after which he wrote feature pages and travel reports for the "Deutsche Kulturdienst" and from 1940 to 1944 "art contemplations" (theater reviews) on the Viennese theater scene for the with limited work permit " Kölnische Zeitung ".

Fontana was in contact with a group of journalists who were preparing for a democratic reorganization of the press after fascism was broken.

In 1945 Fontana took over the art department in the daily newspaper “ Neues Österreich ”. Fontana was instrumental in founding the Association of Democratic Writers. In 1946 he founded the Austrian book club. From 1945 Fontana was editor-in-chief of the “ Wiener Kurier ”, but was dismissed without notice on February 14, 1946 because of a “pan Germanistic” article in the Nazi magazine “ Das Reich ”, which was a review of a Richard Wagner performance in Linz . Fontana justified himself: "I think I did what was possible to save the ghost even during the Nazi era." From 1951 to 1958 he was a theater critic for the " Presse ". Between 1959 and 1964 Fontana was President of the Austrian Writers' Association .

His literary work consists of plays, novels, short stories and monographs on actors such as Paula Wessely , Albin Skoda and Hans Moser . He was best known for his book The First Winter . Until his death he had written ten books. The Vienna Library bought his estate from the Fontana family property in 1970.

He was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery in the Ehrenhain (group 40, number 11).

Awards

Oskar Fontana's grave

Works (selection)

  • The fairy tale of silence , 1910
  • The milk brothers , 1913
  • Marc , 1918
  • Revival , 1919
  • Triumph of Joy , 1920
  • Outrage , 1920
  • The Tribune on the Run , 1921
  • Elephantine Island , 1924
  • Job the spendthrift , 1925
  • Prisoners of the Earth , 1928
  • Concrete on the Atlantic , 1941
  • They were looking for the port in 1946
  • The towers of Beg Begouja , 1946
  • Disaster on the Nile , 1947
  • Else Wohlgemuth , 1950
  • Paula Wessely , 1959
  • Volkstheater Vienna , 1964
  • Hans Moser , 1965
  • "The First Winter"
  • "When the nightingale dies"
  • "When the last cloud goes"
  • "25 days in advance"
  • "The End of Eden"
  • Albin Skoda Genius between light and shadow , 1962
  • “Viennese actors. From Mitterwurzer to Maria Eis "(Amandus, 1948)

literature

  • Alexandra Reininghaus: Oskar Maurus Fontana. The profile of an Austrian journalist. Dissertation, Salzburg 1983.
  • Oliver Rathkolb : National Socialist "art observation" versus cultural freedom of expression. Notes on the primacy of the political over the aesthetic in the Ostmark 1938. In: Die veruntreute Demokratie. Hitler's propagandists in Austria '38. Edited by Oliver Rathkolb, Wolfgang Duchkowitsch and Fritz Hausjell with the assistance of Hannes Haas. Salzburg 1988

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Roessler: Humanism of Compromise? Oskar Maurus Fontana's theater journalism. In: Literature of 'Inner Emigration' from Austria , ed. v. Johann Holzner and Karl Müller, Vienna 1998.
personal data
SURNAME Fontana, Oskar Maurus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian narrator, playwright, poet, theater critic and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 4th May 1969
Place of death Vienna