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70-411: Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. He is considered one of the most significant representatives of Viennese Modernism. Schnitzler’s works, which include psychological dramas and narratives, dissected turn-of-the-century Viennese bourgeois life, making him a sharp and stylistically conscious chronicler of Viennese society around 1900. Arthur Schnitzler

140-763: A breakup at the P.E.N. conference in Dubrovnik. The members discussed an official protest against the prosecution of writers and the burning of books by the Nazis. In consequence the German delegation left the conference and referred to the organization's principle not to interfere with politics. Some members of the Austrian delegation solidarized with the Germans, while others supported the resolution. This breakup continued afterwards in Vienna and led to

210-433: A letter to Schnitzler Sigmund Freud confessed "I have gained the impression that you have learned through intuition – although actually as a result of sensitive introspection – everything that I have had to unearth by laborious work on other persons") and for their strong stand against antisemitism , represented by works such as his play Professor Bernhardi and his novel Der Weg ins Freie . However, although Schnitzler

280-528: A new urban middle class. The early Lieder of Schubert, which were performable at the piano without substantial musical training, serve as examples. Further, Biedermeier writers were mainly middle-class, as opposed to the German Romantics, who were mainly drawn from the nobility. The second trend is the growing political oppression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars prompting people to concentrate on

350-425: A patient the realization that she is on the point of death, is his only major dramatic work without a sexual theme. A member of the avant-garde group Young Vienna ( Jung-Wien ), Schnitzler toyed with formal as well as social conventions. With his 1900 novella Leutnant Gustl , he was the first to write German fiction in stream-of-consciousness narration. The story is an unflattering portrait of its protagonist and of

420-426: A realistic description of the reality at that time. With the start of Enlightenment around 1720, philosophy and the need of literature to educate the reader (Lehrdichtung, Bildungsroman) were two new and strong motivations for literature. [1] Aristotle and his school of thinking was revived. These ideas developed on the territories of Austria during the rule of Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II . Around 1790

490-521: A religious nature. Others responded with escapism, providing beautiful and peaceful worlds readers could flee to. The humorous stories (Schelmenromane) brought relief to the suffering people. This trend is apparent with Abraham a Sancta Clara 's religious and comical works, and Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg 's religious poetry. As a reaction to the Protestant movements of the Reformation, which rocked

560-566: A separation of liberal and "German nationalistic" authors; the latter left the Austrian PEN Club and later worshipped Hitler and his annexation of Austria. Nazi Germany observed the events carefully, boycotted immediately the liberal authors, who couldn't go on publishing in Germany and lost most of their readers and income. After the annexation, these authors were prosecuted as well as their German counterparts for years, and many of them, especially

630-769: A son, Heinrich (1902–1982), born on 9 August 1902. In 1909 they had a daughter, Lili, who committed suicide in 1928. The Schnitzlers separated in 1921. Schnitzler died on 21 October 1931 in Vienna of a brain haemorrhage . In 1938, following the Anschluss , his son Heinrich went to the United States and did not return to Austria until 1959; he is the father of the Austrian musician and conservationist Michael Schnitzler , born in 1944 in Berkeley, California, who moved to Vienna with his parents in 1959. Schnitzler's works were often controversial, both for their frank description of sexuality (in

700-400: A string of copycat suicides across Germany, and many states banned the work, but Austrian authorities also banned Goethe's entire opus . It came mostly from Empress Maria Theresa's 'Chastity Commission', intended to uphold public morals, but it had the effect not only of creating a facade of decency but a stunted intellectual front. Perhaps the primary reason for Austria's late literary fruition

770-519: A symbiosis of different regional traditions and languages. In the Middle Ages, there was a homogeneous zone along the Danube River, spanning from Bavaria down to the eastern territories. Travelers and bards moved along this route, bringing with them new influences. At the same time Alps had their forbidding little valleys, which were virtually untouched - they developed their own regional culture. This

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840-563: A translation to Modern German. Around 1600, humanism , with its rediscovery of ancient cultures and ideals, spread from Italy throughout Europe. Emperor Maximilian I was a big supporter of this movement. He managed to gather around his court in Vienna humanists such as Conrad Celtes – the founder of Collegium Poetarum or in the later time poet laureat Vadian (Joachim von Watt) who wrote in Latin. Eleonore of Austria translated to German

910-467: A widely read French adventure novel Pontus et la belle Sidonie . Big figures of the Catholic Church of that time Nicholas of Cusa and Petrus Canisius were connected with the Austrian court and a few of their works were written in German. The Thirty Years War had multiple effects on European literary trends; some writers based their work on the sufferings of the time, or withdrew into writings of

980-626: Is Bertha von Suttner . She wrote social novels whose literary quality usually is not appreciated highly by literary critiques and Germanists, but Suttner received the Nobel Prize for Peace for her novel Die Waffen nieder (Lay down your arms) in 1905. While in Germany Realism paved the way for Naturalism, a similar literary movement has never developed in Austria. Instead, the successors were Jugendstil and Expressionism . The Jugendstil movement

1050-677: Is closely connected with German literature . From the 19th century onward, Austria was the home of novelists and short-story writers, including Adalbert Stifter , Arthur Schnitzler , Franz Werfel , Stefan Zweig , Franz Kafka , Thomas Bernhard , Joseph Roth , and Robert Musil , and of poets Georg Trakl , Rose Ausländer , Franz Grillparzer , Rainer Maria Rilke , and Paul Celan . Famous contemporary playwrights and novelists include Elfriede Jelinek and Peter Handke , and well-known essayists such as Robert Menasse and Karl-Markus Gauß . Despite Austria's contributions to architecture and revered musical traditions, no Austrian literature made it to

1120-460: Is growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a new urban middle class. The early Lieder of Schubert, which were performable at the piano without substantial musical training, serve as examples. Further, Biedermeier writers were mainly middle-class, as opposed to the Romantics, who were mainly drawn from the nobility. The second trend is the growing political oppression following the end of

1190-418: Is important because it remains characteristic through the centuries. On the other hand, there were writers strictly in the tradition of a region (like towns, countries etc.) language or culture, on the other hand there was a continuous influence on each other's writing and thinking. The multi-ethnic Habsburg monarchy , Austrian Empire and eventually Austro-Hungarian Empire should therefore not be reduced to

1260-473: Is marked by the writings of Adalbert Stifter (1805–1868). His first work Nachsommer was published in 1857 but was still believed to be one of the finest works of biedermeier. Stifter not only influenced Peter Rosegger but also German writers like Ganghofer , Heyse , Freytag , Wildenbruch and later authors (the time of " Bürgerlichen Realismus ") like Storm , Fontane and through them Thomas Mann and Hesse . Austrian writers of Realism are primarily

1330-411: Is most notable for Schnitzler's casual descriptions of sexual conquests; he was often in relationships with several women at once (most of his liaisons occurred with an embroiderer named “Jeanette”) and for a period of some years he kept a record of every orgasm. Collections of Schnitzler's letters also have been published. Schnitzler's works were called "Jewish filth" by Adolf Hitler and were banned by

1400-462: The University of Vienna and in 1885 he received his doctorate of medicine. He began work at Vienna's General Hospital (German: Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien ), but ultimately abandoned the practice of medicine in favour of writing. On 26 August 1903, Schnitzler married Olga Gussmann (1882–1970), a 21-year-old aspiring actress and singer who came from a Jewish middle-class family. They had

1470-564: The " Merseburger Zaubersprüche ", two Germanic spells being the only written proofs for pagan religion in the German-speaking lands. The "Hildebrandslied" is important as a voucher of Germanic hero literature. The first German texts were written to translate Latin religious books around 750 in the early Middle Ages . The Benedictine communities in Melk and Salzburg were carrying on notable literary and religious activities. Ava (1060–1127), who

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1540-481: The 12th century, satire was also developing. Seifried Helbling was an example of a writer who wrote texts of this type. Later on, the minnesang, which was cultivated by knights, became a craft practiced by burghers – meistersingers . Its center was more to the west, in Nuremberg . Michael Beheim was a meistersinger poet strongly connected with the court in Vienna . Yet another form that developed at that time

1610-414: The 1946 Argentine film The Naked Angel , starring Olga Zubarry . The majority of Schnitzler's archive, which consists of 40,000 pages worth of documents, was saved from the Nazis by a British man, Eric A. Blackall. Acting at the behest of Schnitzler's widow (actually his ex-wife), Olga, Blackhall arranged for the documents to be secretly transported to Cambridge University under a diplomatic seal. After

1680-511: The Armenian tragedy of 1915, and after Franz Kafka's death, his life-time friend Max Brod began to publish Kafka's unfinished novels. Later Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti studied and lived in Vienna and wrote his only novel Auto-da-Fe, before the Anschluss he fled to England. In analogy to Musil's Kakania (from the anagram for the k. u. k. , i.e. imperial and royal monarchy till 1918), Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando created Tarockania for

1750-496: The Austrian theatre. He was a dramatic adviser at the Wiener Burgtheater from 1814 to 1832. Another important dramatist was Johann Nepomuk von Kalchberg , but historical themes of his dramas give his work the flavour of Romanticism . Around 1790 these ideas were firmly rooted and the ancient classic cultures (Greek and Roman) were the inspiration for poets, artists, architects and writers. Harmony and Beauty were some of

1820-579: The Catholic-led Habsburg territories, many Catholic schools emerged on the territories of Austria. These colleges led by the Jesuit order developed plays and operas that were Italian in style and impressed most by their luxurious equipment. Sermons were an important genre of baroque literature, rooted as it was in the Counter-Reformation . The aforementioned Benedictine monk Abraham a Sancta Clara

1890-733: The Croatian islands, which served as the Austro-Hungarian equivalent to the French Côte d'Azur, a center for writers, painters and other artists at value - and that often-meant religious texts - were written down. In addition, most texts were also translated into Latin before they were put down (e.g. Germanic tribal laws). Different sources however suggest that there also existed aristocratic historical records (like Heldenlieder), lyric folklore (dance, love songs, spells). Only by accident individual texts were preserved in monasteries. Examples for this are

1960-475: The German parts of the empire. There were large ethnic or religious minorities in nearly all regional capitals, like Prague , Budapest or Vienna —microcosmi with their own traditions and characteristics. Franz Kafka may be a good example: while in some of his writings he declared himself to be "German" this was meant more in relation to the ethnic minority living in Prague than as a declaration for another part of

2030-970: The Jewish, were murdered or forced to emigration. Stefan Zweig flew to Brazil, Franz Werfel escaped to the US together with the German writer Heinrich Mann , Elias Canetti to England. Others, like Jura Soyfer , were killed by the Nazis. In 2007, the Theodor Kramer Society published an anthology of Austrian poetry written in exile, under the title In welcher Sprache träumen Sie? (Which Language Do You Dream In?). The editors present 278 authors whose names in many cases have been wiped out. The better known among them are Ilse Aichinger , Franz Theodor Csokor , Albert Drach , Albert Paris Gütersloh , Hermann Hakel , Theodor Kramer , Josef Luitpold Stern , Felix Pollak , Paula von Preradović , Joseph Roth , Hilde Spiel , Wilhelm Szabo , Hans Weigel , Stefan Zweig . During

2100-418: The Napoleonic Wars prompting people to concentrate on the domestic and (at least in public) the non-political. The strict publication rules and the censorship had the consequence, that the main topics written about were unpolitical, e.g. Historical Fiction or Books about the quiet life in the countryside. This does not mean that there was not a lot of political discussion going on, but it happened at home and in

2170-781: The Nazi dictatorship, which had factually wiped out the Austrian state, the Austrian PEN Club was in exile in London and continued its work in Austria from 1946 on. Until 1973, PEN was the only Austrian writers' organization of importance. Bedroom farce Georges Feydeau plays, presented in Paris in the 1890s, are now considered forerunners to the Theatre of the Absurd . The Viennese playwright Arthur Schnitzler took bedroom farce to its highest dramatic level in his La Ronde , which in ten bedroom scenes connect

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2240-517: The Nazis in Austria and Germany. In 1933, when Joseph Goebbels organized book burnings in Berlin and other cities, Schnitzler's works were thrown into flames along with those of other Jews, including Einstein , Marx , Kafka , Freud and Stefan Zweig . His novella Fräulein Else has been adapted a number of times, including the German silent film Fräulein Else (1929), starring Elisabeth Bergner , and

2310-520: The acquisition of the documents by the British was not legitimate and that the documents should be handed to Schnitzler's remaining family in 2015. Schnitzler's grandsons, Michael and Peter, announced that they indeed wanted the documents handed over to them. Notes Further reading Austrian literature Austrian literature ( German : Österreichische Literatur ) is mostly written in German , and

2380-454: The apartment to keep the girls unwittingly flitting about for two hours. American three-camera situation comedy, an extension of proscenium stage tradition, often includes elements of farce, specifically in several episodes of Three's Company , the "Woody's Wedding" episode of Cheers , " The Ski Lodge " episode of Frasier , and the " Love Car Displacement " episode of The Big Bang Theory . Brian Rix performed many bedroom farces at

2450-400: The army's obsessive code of formal honor. It caused Schnitzler to be stripped of his commission as a reserve officer in the medical corps – something that should be seen in the context of the rising tide of antisemitism of the time. He specialized in shorter works like novellas and one-act plays. And in his short stories like "The Green Tie" ("Die grüne Krawatte") he showed himself to be one of

2520-423: The bedroom farce. Michael Frayn 's 1977 play Donkeys' Years is a classic bedroom farce; Frayn parodied the genre in his 1982 play Noises Off via its play-within-the-play, "Nothing On." Alan Ayckbourn 's play, entitled Bedroom Farce , looks at the lives of three couples seen in their own bedrooms, the stage being split into three sets for this purpose. There is much humour in the play, although few if any of

2590-499: The ca. 20 years before the end of World War I was Prague . It was the center of many German-speaking, mostly Jewish, authors who contributed significantly to Austrian and partly even to world literature. Their influence endured until the 1930s. Authors to mention are Oskar Baum , Max Brod , Franz Kafka , the journalist Egon Erwin Kisch , Gustav Meyrink , Robert Musil , Rainer Maria Rilke , Franz Werfel , and Oskar Wiener. Expressionism

2660-424: The classical canon until the 19th century. In the early 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu , whilst visiting Vienna, was stunned to meet no writers at all. Several reasons can be given. First, the arts were the preserve of the imperial court, who saw culture as a political tool, as propaganda. Fine baroque palaces, imperial portraits, and commissions of music could all work very well to this aim, but literature

2730-413: The critical view that his works all seemed to treat the same subjects, he replied "I write of love and death. What other subjects are there?" Despite his seriousness of purpose, Schnitzler frequently approaches the bedroom farce in his plays (and had an affair with Adele Sandrock , one of his actresses). Professor Bernhardi , a play about a Jewish doctor who turns away a Catholic priest in order to spare

2800-595: The domestic and the non-political. Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars , and 1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded it. Biedermeier can be identified with two trends in early 19th-century German history. The first trend

2870-465: The early masters of microfiction . However he also wrote two full-length novels: Der Weg ins Freie about a talented but not very motivated young composer, a brilliant description of a segment of pre-World War I Viennese society; and the artistically less satisfactory Therese . In addition to his plays and fiction, Schnitzler meticulously kept a diary from the age of 17 until two days before his death. The manuscript, which runs to almost 8,000 pages,

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2940-437: The empire. So perhaps he was a "German-speaking-secular-Jewish-Prague-born-Austro-Hungarian-Austro-Czech writer" - a term which best shows the difficulties that are to be faced. Besides the national differences between the provinces, there were also different regions which influenced the writing style. There were Alps with their distinctive traditions, the deep woods, the coastal regions around Trieste (now Italy and Slovenia) and

3010-632: The fact that this small German-speaking Austria had lost most of its territory, industry, and agriculture, led to the fatal conviction of many Austrians that only a union with Germany would be able to save the country from a total downfall, a conviction which paved the way to its later annexation by Hitler in 1938. The texts of some writers give an insight to this conviction. Robert Musil and Hugo von Hofmannsthal expressed their "German centric" point of view, while others, such as Stefan Zweig, Franz Werfel and Alexander Lernet-Holenia , strictly spoke up for Austria and Austrian tradition and culture. The time between

3080-516: The highest and lowest of Vienna. Some of the English Aldwych farces by Ben Travers which were popular in the 1920s and 1930s have aspects of "bedroom farce", e.g. A Cuckoo in the Nest or Rookery Nook . However, in each case the sharing of a bedroom or house turns out to have an innocent explanation. In modern times, Woody Allen 's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) presents aspects of

3150-438: The ideals of that time. There was a lot of philosophical and aesthetic writing which accumulated in the Romantic era around 1820 (mostly writers from the nobility). With the Napoleonic Wars going on, a lot of people wanted literature which took them away in a fantasy world. A lot of religious writing was also providing people with new hope. Klemens Maria Hofbauer , Eduard von Bauernfeld and Franz Grillparzer are but three of

3220-472: The ideas of Enlightenment were firmly rooted and the ancient classic cultures (Greek and Roman) were the inspiration for poets, artists, architects and writers. Harmony and Beauty were some of the ideals of that time. Austrian literature was also under the strong influence of Freemasonry and strongly connected with the criticism towards clergy. All of these circumstances caused the literature to become more educative and instructional. Satire started to be one of

3290-567: The most frequently used literary genres. The literary life of Enlightenment concentrated around an almanac Wienerischer Musen-Almanach . It was started in 1777 (from 1786 under a changed title Wiener Musen-Almanach ) by Joseph Franz von Ratschky and Gottlieb von Leon . Aloys Blumauer was also its editor since 1781 (he even edited a few editions alone). A notable poet in the Austrian literature of this period has Johann Baptist von Alxinger who wrote chivalric epics Doolin von Maynz (1787) and Bliomberis (1791) which were inspired by

3360-564: The play. A more recent adaptation is the Fernando Meirelles ' film 360 . In the novella Fräulein Else (1924) Schnitzler may be rebutting a contentious critique of the Jewish character by Otto Weininger (1903) by positioning the sexuality of the young female Jewish protagonist. The story, a first-person stream of consciousness narrative by a young aristocratic woman, reveals a moral dilemma that ends in tragedy. In response to an interviewer who asked Schnitzler what he thought about

3430-620: The presence of close friends. This explosive situation finally led to the revolutions in Europe in the year 1848. Poets of that time in Austria were Nikolaus Lenau (1802–1850) and Franz Grillparzer . The latter is often mentioned as a representative of Austrian Classicism in literature. Playwrights at that time were Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872), Friedrich Halm (1806–1871) - also an accomplished writer of "Novellen" (novellas and short stories) -, Johann Nepomuk Nestroy (1801–1862) and Ferdinand Raimund (1790–1836). Grillparzer wrote tragedies in

3500-403: The tradition of Freemasonry . Alxinger also wrote poetry based on anticlerical ideas. The writings of a might-have-been monk Johann Pezzl also had a profile of this kind. He wrote journalistic and epic texts. Classical vision of poetry promoted by Joseph Schreyvogel strongly influenced later authors (for instance Franz Grillparzer ). Schreyvogel improved considerably the quality of

3570-587: The tradition of the "Weimarer Klassik", Nestroy and Raimund were representatives for the " Wiener Volksstück " mainly played at the Viennese theater " Volkstheater Wien ". Charles Sealsfield - a pseudonym of Karl Postl - lived a long time in the US and wrote novels set in the Wild West. On the other hand, he managed to write about Austria and to criticize the Austrian absolutism during Biedermeier without being recognized by Austrian authorities. The end of Biedermeier

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3640-405: The two world wars gave way to rich literature in Austria. Robert Musil wrote the well-known novel The Man without Qualities, Stefan Zweig published a multitude of essays, stories and novels, Karl Kraus edited the magazine Die Fackel (The Torch) , for which he wrote almost all articles by himself, Franz Werfel wrote some of his best novels, e.g. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh which narrates

3710-490: The usual conventions of farce are observed. Boeing Boeing is a classic French farce for the stage by Marc Camoletti . Utilizing most of the conventions of bedroom farce's canon, it concerns a Parisian bachelor playboy with three international air stewardess fiancées he secretly keeps in careful rotation, until their flight schedules change and he, along with his provincial friend and sassy maid, must keep them from finding out about each other. Luckily they have enough doors in

3780-458: The war, this created a tricky legal situation, as Schnitzler's ex-wife, Olga did not have the legal right to donate the documents. In fact, Schnitzler had bequeathed them to his son, Heinrich, who was not in Vienna at the time. During the Second World War and afterwards, Heinrich Schnitzler tried to get the documents back but did not succeed. Thomas Trenkler wrote in the newspaper Kurier that

3850-529: The weird figures of his humorous novels and stories. Catholic and conservative Austrofascism came into power after the Austrian Civil War and revitalized censorship. A more important influence on Austrian literature resulted however from Nazi empowerment in Germany in 1933. Not only the majority of German speaking readers live in Germany, but almost all large and important publishers for literature in German are situated in Germany as well. In 1933 it came to

3920-520: The writer of short novels Ferdinand von Saar , Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and the aforementioned Adalbert Stifter . Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach is known for her psychological novels and novellas as well as for her social engagement. Ferdinand Kürnberger was a novelist much like Leopold von Sacher-Masoch , who became famous with Venus in Furs - the erotic behavior he described, would later be called masochism according to his name. Another writer to mention

3990-457: The writers influenced by these events. The German writer Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel also lived and worked in Vienna around 1809. Between the years 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars , and 1848, the year of the European revolutions the Biedermeier contrasted with the Romantic era which preceded it partly. The first trend is growing urbanization and industrialization leading to

4060-740: Was drama . Especially, presentations of Passion were regularly played. Das Wiener Passionsspiel is worth mentioning here. An Austrian representative of Holy Grail literature is Heinrich von dem Tuerlîn (also written Türlin ). He wrote the poem Diu Crône , which has about 30,000 lines. The edition of the original text in Middle High German has completed recently by the Viennese Germanists Fritz Peter Knapp, Manuela Niesner (Part I, Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, Tübingen 2000), Alfred Ebenbauer and Florian Kragl (Part II, Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, Tübingen 2005), who are preparing

4130-399: Was Jewish, Professor Bernhardi and Fräulein Else are among the few clearly identified Jewish protagonists in his work. Schnitzler was branded as a pornographer after the release of his play Reigen , in which 10 pairs of characters are shown before and after the sexual act, leading and ending with a prostitute. The furor after this play was couched in the strongest antisemitic terms. Reigen

4200-424: Was a lot of travelling along the Danube River, with travelling bards ( Minnesänger ) bringing news and new songs. The towns were getting rich and independent. The first representatives of this movement and first known male writers in German were Der von Kürenberg and Dietmar von Aist (12th century). At the end of the 12th century, one of the most important literary works of the times, Nibelungenlied , emerged. It

4270-466: Was a notable preacher of the times. A Jesuit, Georg Scherer , is another example of a monk whose sermons were published and had a wider audience. Another literary form were improvised plays called "Hanswurstspiele". This direction was represented by Josef Anton Stranitzky , Gottfried Prehauser , Joachim Perinet and Josef Felix von Kurz-Bernardon . Examples of baroque epic are the chivalric fiction and "Schelmenromane" of Johann Beer , which represent

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4340-477: Was born at Praterstrasse 16, Leopoldstadt , Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire (as of 1867, part of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary ). He was the son of a prominent Hungarian laryngologist , Johann Schnitzler (1835–1893), and Luise Markbreiter (1838–1911), a daughter of the Viennese doctor Philipp Markbreiter. His parents were both from Jewish families. In 1879 Schnitzler began studying medicine at

4410-461: Was created by an unknown minnesang poet most probably in the territories of Austria. As the tradition of minnesang grew, the older poets started teaching younger ones. For example, probably the most known German bard Walther von der Vogelweide (13th century) learnt his craft from Reinmar von Hagenau at the court in Vienna. Among other known minnesang poets are Neidhart , Jans der Enikel , Ulrich von Liechtenstein , and Oswald von Wolkenstein . In

4480-424: Was deemed less suitable and thus not encouraged. Second, the late emergence of German literature; while much was published in German, hardly had the caliber to become "classic" until the late 18th century, when Goethe and Schiller began writing. In Austria, the imperial state also censored all books mercilessly; The Sorrows of Young Werther , Goethe's novel depicting a young man's ecstatic love and suicide, spawned

4550-428: Was its cultural mindset. According to the cultural historian Carl Emil Schorske , 'profoundly Catholic, it was a deeply sensuous, plastic culture'. The outlook of a leisured aristocracy, it was copied by the lower classes. This mentality was not necessarily bad; the emphasis on beauty and fantasy was integral to establishing the imperial capital of Vienna , and it made Vienna the greatest center of music in Europe. But it

4620-523: Was made into a French language film in 1950 by the German-born director Max Ophüls as La Ronde . The film achieved considerable success in the English-speaking world, with the result that Schnitzler's play is better known there under its French title. Richard Oswald 's film The Merry-Go-Round (1920), Roger Vadim 's Circle of Love (1964) and Otto Schenk's Der Reigen (1973) also are based on

4690-550: Was not the best ground for the literary experiment. Nevertheless, the liberalization of Austria in the late 19th century created a more dynamic climate for writing, which soon produced a flowering. The main problem of defining a dynamic development may be that any definition will fall short of the various currents which lead to a certain type of literature. Through the centuries, there have been different approaches, but most of them have been criticized to be biased - cultural, ideological, or political. Austrian literature developed out of

4760-475: Was presented primarily by the poet Georg Trakl and the dramatist and narrator Hugo von Hofmannsthal , both originating from Salzburg . The end of World War I reduced Austria to a very small and mainly German-speaking country. Some Austrian (and German writing) authors relocated to new emerging countries, such as Kafka and Werfel to Czechoslovakia . Others, such as Robert Musil, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Elias Canetti , migrated to Vienna. The political rupture and

4830-523: Was primarily a cultural movement of architecture and decorative arts. However, Viennese Jugendstil was marked by the presence of artists of every genre, including compositors and writers. Viennese writers, such as Arthur Schnitzler and Stefan Zweig , are often included in this movement. Arthur Schnitzler was a very typical writer of that time. He wrote his major works between 1890 and the end of World War I , namely novels, short stories and theater plays. A very important center of Austrian literature during

4900-480: Was the first known German female writer, wrote in this religiously inspired tradition and lived in the territories which were then and now within the borders of Austria. With the Crusades around 1160, knights became more important and prosperous. The oral minnesang was a new form, dealing with their love. The topics of the ballads were also more worldly with themes ranging from love and war to political criticism. There

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