Richard Beer-Hofmann

Richard Beer -Hofmann ( born July 11, 1866 in Vienna, † September 26, 1945 in New York ) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and lyricist.

Life

After the early death of his mother, he grew up in the house of his aunt's family in Brno and Vienna, where he attended the Academic Gymnasium. In the 1880s, he took up the study of law in Vienna, which he finished in 1890 with his doctorate. In the same year he met the writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hermann Bahr and Arthur Schnitzler, with whom he entertained a long friendship. Financially well secured, he could live as a freelance writer, without having to back up this activity by its livelihood. In 1898 he married Anna Pauline Lissy called Paula; the couple had three children, Miriam, Naëmah and Gabriel.

1893 appeared the band's novels ( The child, Camelias ), followed by poems, 1900, the story of George 's death and 1904, the tragedy The Count of Charolais. From 1906 Beer-Hofmann worked on dramas cycle The History of King David, who, however, remained unfinished. After the First World War and the period of inflation forced to work wage, he was active in the 1920s to 1932 as a director, including for Max Reinhardt. During this time he also commented on the then highly political discussions on the national and linguistic autonomy of the Austrians. For the uniform North German embossed default language he said about 1933:

Only a year after the annexation of Austria succeeded Richard Beer -Hofmann on August 19, 1939, the emigration, first to Switzerland ( Zurich ), then to New York. Here he gave up the work on King David and devoted himself entirely to the work memory of his beloved, died in Zurich on October 30, 1939 Ms. Paula. In 1945 he became an American citizen. He died in the same year.

Stylistically, the work of Beer-Hofmann is most likely attributable to the literary movement of Jugendstil.

Beer-Hofmann has won multiple awards, as with the People's Schiller Prize in 1905 in Germany and was awarded the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1945 in the United States. A year after his death, was founded in New York, the Beer-Hofmann Society.

In 1968 in Vienna Floridsdorf ( 21st district ), the Beer-Hofmann - alley named after him.

His estate is located in New York at the Leo Baeck Institute.

Works

• Short Stories (1893 )
• Lullaby for Miriam ( Gedicht. 1897)
• The death of George ( Romansh 1900)
• The Count of Charolais. A tragedy (1904 )
• Commemorative speech on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( 1906)
• Trilogy The History of King David (unfinished) Jacob's dream. A Prelude (1918 )
• The young David. Seven images ( 1933)
• Prelude on the Stage to King David (1936 )