Alexander Lernet-Holenia

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Alexander

Alexander Lernet-Holenia (October 21, 1897 in Vienna – July 3, 1976, in Vienna) was an Austrian writer, dramatist, and poet whose extensive body of work ranks among the most significant German-language literature of the 20th century. In his writing, he combined historical and fantastical elements with a stylistically sophisticated, often poetic language and a philosophical depth that reflects themes such as fate, identity, and the upheavals of the 20th century.

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Alexander

Youth and service in World War I Alexander Maria Norbert Lernet was born on October 21, 1897, in Vienna. His mother, Sidonie von Boyneburgk-Stettfeld (1856–1935), née Holenia, was the daughter of the wealthy Carinthian mining industrialist Romuald Holenia. Sidonie was first married to Baron Julius von Boyneburgk-Stettfeld (1834–1890) and, seven years after his death and shortly before Alexander was born, remarried the ten-years-younger Austrian Navy officer Alexander Lernet (1866–1922). This unexpected union, which ended after a short time in a divorce drama, was often interpreted as an attempt to conceal Archduke Charles Stephen of Habsburg’s affection for Sidonie. The rumour that Archduke Karl was his father, neither confirmed nor denied by Lernet-Holenia himself, divided family, friends, and interpreters. In literary terms, however, it became an "origin secret" that runs through his works, populated by illegitimate children, impostors, doubles, and genealogical enigmas. Lernet-Holenia grew up between Vienna and Klagenfurt and completed his secondary school in Waidhofen an der Ybbs in 1915. In September of the same year, he volunteered for military service. Like many young men of his generation, he went – buoyed by patriotic enthusiasm – straight from school to the front lines of the First World War. Assigned to…Citește mai mult

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Alexander

In 1920, he was adopted by his mother’s wealthy family, who lived in Carinthia, and from then on bore the double name Lernet-Holenia, though for the sake of abbreviation he is often referred to simply as "Lernet". He entered the literary scene in the early 1920s with sophisticated Expressionist poetry before turning to the theatre. He had already written his first poems at the age of seventeen and, from the Russian front, had sent them to Rainer Maria Rilke, whom he deeply admired. He signed his first volume of poetry, Pastorale, published in a small edition in 1921 by the Viennese Literarische Anstalt, with the name Alexander Maria Lernet. Under the patronage of Rainer Maria Rilke and Hermann Bahr, Lernet published his second volume of poetry, Kanzonnair, with Insel Verlag in 1923. Hermann Bahr counted Lernet among the "greatest hopes" of German-language Expressionist literature at the time and enthusiastically welcomed the tragedy Demetrius (1925). Indeed, Lernet’s early dramatic works quickly brought him major recognition: in 1926, at the age of 29, he was awarded the Kleist Prize for the three plays Demetrius, Ollapotrida, and Österreichische Komödie. This distinction also gave him the opportunity to display the provocative streak that would…Citește mai mult

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Alexander

The 1930s After a decade devoted to poetry and the theatre, the 1930s saw Lernet enter a period of intense narrative production (around thirty longer and shorter stories were written), without his abandoning the other genres. His first venture into prose came in 1930 with Die nächtliche Hochzeit, a novel based on his play of the same name. A year later, a second novel followed, Die Abenteuer eines jungen Herrn in Polen (tr. A Young Gentleman in Poland), which reversed the original relationship between novel and theatre: it led to a stage adaptation in 1932, Die Abenteuer der Kascha. Commercial success came very quickly, and Lernet’s production of fantastic novels began to stand out clearly. He owed a broad readership to his prose, which made his financial situation even more comfortable and until the war, he was able to undertake extended journeys – throughout Europe (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Greece), as well as Egypt and North and South America. Among the numerous texts published during this decade and highly praised by critics and contemporaries are: Ich war Jack Mortimer (1933, tr. I was Jack Mortimer), Die Standarte (1934, tr. The Standard or The Glory Is Departed), Der Baron…Citește mai mult

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Second World War Like Wallmoden, the protagonist of Mars im Widder (tr. Mars in Aries), Lernet was called up on August 15, 1939, in his capacity as a reserve officer for a one-month period of military service with his unit. Like Wallmoden, he received marching orders on August 22 to an initially unknown destination and, on September 1, was drawn into the invasion of Poland, where – again like Wallmoden – he was wounded in the right hand the very next day, but remained on duty until October 23, the end of the fighting in Poland. He immediately tried to be relieved of from active front duty, citing not only his wound but also alleged writing contracts he needed to fulfil. Among others, he turned to the publisher Peter Suhrkamp, who at the time was working for S. Fischer, Lernet’s principal publisher since the 1920s, as well as to the director and president of the Reich Chamber of Film (Reichsfilmkammer), Carl Froelich, and to the actor Emil Jannings, who owned a residence in St. Wolfgang and had influence with Goebbels. According to Lernet’s biographer, Roman Roček, it was above all Jannings’s intervention that proved decisive, as he secured for Lernet…Citește mai mult

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Postwar period (1945–1955) In the autumn of 1945, Lernet married Eva Vollbach in St. Wolfgang. In the early 1950s, the couple settled in Vienna in an apartment in the Hofburg, no less, placed at their disposal by a grateful Austrian government. Today, a commemorative plaque installed by the PEN Club indicates that he lived there from 1952 until his death. Between 1939 and 1945, Lernet published nothing new – with the exception of Beide Sizilien – though he wrote extensively: poems, short prose texts, and the novel Der Graf von Saint-Germain. After the end of the war, he turned to Viennese publishers (Amandus Edition, Bellaria Verlag). Dissatisfied with the quality of their print work, he subsequently relied on Swiss publishers (Pegasus Verlag, Morgarten, Rascher), while also continuing to collaborate occasionally with S. Fischer. From 1955 onward, however, he entrusted his entire narrative output to Paul Zsolnay Verlag. In 1951, he was awarded the Literature Prize of the City of Vienna (Preis der Stadt Wien für Dichtkunst).

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On the basis of a statement published at the end of 1945 in the Austrian journal Der Turm, an organ of Catholic conservatism, Lernet was often classified – without much differentiation – within the camp of cultural conservatism in the decades after the war:Tr. "In truth, we need only continue where the dreams of a madman interrupted us; indeed, we need not look ahead, but only look back. […]. […] We are, in the best and most meaningful sense, our past; we need only remember that we are our past – and it will become our future."The label "conservative" however does not do justice to the complexity of Lernet’s personality or worldview. During this period, he also sent texts to the communist journal Österreichisches Tagebuch as well as to the Arbeiter-Zeitung, the organ of the Austrian Social Democratic Party. He took part in the most pressing debates and controversies, commenting in particular on exile, on "inner emigration", and also opposing the atomic bomb – in formulations that have lost none of their relevance until today. From 1954 to 1967, he also served as co-editor of the Austrian journal Forum, founded by Friedrich Torberg, an uncompromising anti-communist who, especially between 1956…Citește mai mult

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Lernet’s literary productivity did not diminish – new novels, numerous short stories, as well as the biographies Prinz Eugen (1960) and Naundorff (1961) were published. Over more than a decade (1957–1968), he continued to receive numerous prizes and distinctions. From the turn of the 1960s onward, however, reflections aimed at demonstrating the unworthiness of the last members of the Austrian imperial house increasingly intruded on his texts. The search for personal identity continually intermixed family genealogy with his country’s history. His genealogical obsessions began to strain the structure of his narratives, which were no longer able to integrate their constituent elements. Criticism, often unflattering, concluded that Lernet was parodying himself. At the same time, his public outbursts became more famous than his writings. Alongside cultivated politeness, the "grand seigneur of literature" was capable of memorable fits of rage. As a result, the press reported on him less in literary sections than in gossip columns and court reports. Lernet’s combative zeal was directed indiscriminately against administrative authorities, politicians, the press, and his peers in high society. In politics as well, Lernet-Holenia resisted all labels: he supported the candidacy of the socialist Franz Jonas for the presidency, while at the same time…Citește mai mult

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Reception During his lifetime, Alexander Lernet-Holenia was highly controversial, not least because of his affinity for polemical commentary on contemporary affairs. Nevertheless, his works were widely read for their elegant style and exceptional narrative artistry. Stefan Zweig described Lernet-Holenia in a letter to the composer Richard Strauss as Tr: "a mysterious figure as a writer, truly great in his poetry and in some of his dramatic scenes, yet at times unbelievably careless when, with his left hand and for the sake of making money, he writes comedies or light novels that have no depth at all, though they still possess grace. A collaboration with you, I thought, might spur him to the highest productivity, for when the fire within him is awakened, he is, in my view, more magnificent than all the others."In more recent times, the motifs and fantastical elements of Alexander Lernet-Holenia’s works have also come into focus in Literary Studies. The following review by Patti Smith is representative of more recent reception history:"Baron Bagge by the Viennese poet and novelist Alexander Lernet-Holenia – a slim manuscript printed on slightly discoloured paper, holding a vague scent of black tea. I know little of the author save that he…Citește mai mult

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Honors and posthumous recognition Kleist Prize (1926) Goethe Prize of the city of Bremen (1927) City of Vienna Prize for Literature (1951) Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Verdienstkreuz) (1958) Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature (1961) Gold Medal of the capital Vienna (1967) Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1968) A park in Vienna's Hernals district was named after Lernet-Holenia on 24 September 1999. The International Alexander Lernet-Holenia Society (Internationale Alexander Lernent-Holenia Gesellschaft), founded in Vienna in 1998, promotes the study, translation and publication of the author's works. Italian writer Roberto Calasso, a Franz Kafka scholar whose own writings reference Central European identity themes and tensions, served at the Society's president.

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Works in English translation 1933: A Young Gentleman in Poland (Die Abenteuer eines jungen Herrn in Polen – novel), translator: Alan Harris, Duckworth, London 1936: The Standard (Die Standarte, novel), translator: Alan Harris, William Heinemann Ltd, London-Toronto 1936: The Glory is Departed (Die Standarte, novel), translator: Alan Harris, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York-London 1955: Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa, novella), in German Stories and Tales, translator: Jane B. Greene, Pocket Books, Inc., New York 1956: Count Luna (Der Graf Luna, novel) & Baron Bagge (Der Baron Bagge, novella). Two Tales of the real and the unreal, Translators: Richard & Clara Winston (Baron Bagge), translators: Jane B. Greene (Count Luna). Introduction: Robert Pick, Criterion Books, Inc. New York 1988: The Resurrection of Maltravers (Die Auferstehung des Maltravers, novel), translator: Joachim Neugroschel, Eridanos Press, Colorado 1991: "The Man in the Hat" (Der Mann im Hut, abstract, novel), In: Relationships: An anthology of contemporary Austrian prose, translator: Heidi Hutschinson, Ariadne Press, Riverside California 1997: "Hitler's origins" (Hitlers Herkunft, essay), translator: Thomas G. Ringmayr, Southern Humanities Review,Volume 31, Auburn University, Auburn Alabama 2000: "To the Moon" (An den Mond, poetry), Arthur's death (Der Tod Arthurs, poetry). translator: Johannes Beilharz 2000: "Aristocracy and Society in…Citește mai mult

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Screenwriter The Great Love (1942) (directed by Rolf Hansen, written by: Rolf Hansen & Peter Groll based on a concept by Alexander Lernet-Holenia) Die Entlassung (1942) (directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, written by: Alexander Lernet-Holenia (story), Curt J. Braun & Felix von Eckardt) On Resonant Shores (1948) (directed by Hans Unterkircher, written by: Alexander Lernet-Holenia) Espionage (1955) (directed by Franz Antel, written by: Alexander Lernet-Holenia & Kurt Nachmann)