en4/4 | Research Strands / First Phase Research Strands
On 11 June 1965 a spectacular group reading in London’s Royal Albert Hall became a landmark event. Ernst Jandl, who up until then was largely unknown, provoked ‘a pandemonious riot’ with his reading of his sound poems in front of an audience of 7,000. Today the performance-artist counts as one of the best-known German-language poets after 1945, whose poems reached and continue to reach far more than the proverbial 1,500 potential poetry-consumers. read more
The foundation of the Thomas Bernhard Archive in 2001, which made Bernhard’s literary estate available for academic analysis, provided the basis for the twenty-two volume critical edition by Suhrkamp Verlag, as well as for an extensive biographical portrait of the author. A considerable number of papers in the Bernhard archive in the Villa Stonborough-Wittgenstein in Gmunden, including typescripts of drafts and final versions of Bernhard’s works, as well as a large number of private documents, have now been made available for research. read more
Biography of Hugo von Hofmannsthal
‘I have been approached by several people with regard to the writing of my biography. A very curious request … An inability to grasp the purely spiritual adventure’, notes Hugo von Hofmannsthal in November 1926 and gives cause for thought: ‘Whoever writes a biography makes himself equal to the subject’. read more
Biography of Eugenie Schwarzwald
Eugenie Schwarzwald, Frau Dr. Schwarzwald, Frau Doktor, Genia Schwarzwald, Genia, Genka. Born Eugenie Nussbaum on 4 July 1872 in a village in East Galicia, Schwarzwald made more than one name for herself as a reform pedagogue, journalist, social worker and patron of the arts. To her friends and contemporaries she was Genia, a female genius, to her husband, Genka (a Slavonic diminutive), for many generations of pupils and protégés ‘Frau Doktor’ or simply ‘Fr. Dr.’. read more
Biography of Leopold von Andrian
The literary estate of Leopold von Andrian (1875-1951) is a frequently consulted, largely because of Andrian’s connections to famous writers, especially Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The estate is, however, not merely literary but also historical-political, documenting Andrian’s diplomatic career with numerous notes and papers regarding his activities in Athens, Rio de Janeiro, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw. read more