Arthur Schnitzler (15 May, 1862 – 21 October, 1931) was one of Austria ‘s most important authors and writers.
Fun Facts about Arthur Schnitzler:
1. Arthur Schnitzler was bom as a Jewish citizen of the Austrian Empire in its capital city, Vienna. His father, Johann Schnitzler was an important doctor specializing in larnyx. and his mother Luise Markbreiter. daughter of a Viennese doctor.
2. Following the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Mr. Schnitzler graduated from medical school and even worked in Vienna’s General Hospital. He gave up his medical career for writing.
3. Olga Gussmann, a 21 year old Jewish aspiring singer/actress and Arthur Schnitzler married on 26 August, 1903. They had one son, Heinrich (b. 1902) and daughter, Lili (b. 1909). Lili committed suicide when she 19 years old, Heinrich moved to the United States when Germany annexed Austria in 1938, reading the writing on the wall. Heinrich’s son, Michael Schnitzler, is a famous musician and conservationist. The couple didn’t marry until after Heinrich was born, which, at the time, was quite controversial.
3. Thanks to Mi Schnitzler, historians have an excellent source of private life in 19″ century Vienna. He kept a detailed diary to the point of obsession, including detailing his sexual encounters.
4. It’s no surprise than that Anker Schmitzler, fiction also details sexual activity, and were often considered controversial. In fact, when his play Reigen was released he was labeled a pornographer, The anger over the play was often expressed in antisemitic terms.
5. Ironically, the play is more loved and well known outside of Austria. This is because it was made into several motion pictures. La Ronde (1950), the first French language film, The Merry-Go-Round (1920), Circle of Love (1964), Der Reigen (1973), and even as recent as 2011 as 360.
5. Most of Arthur Schnitzler’s works were novellas or one act plays. He did releases two full-length novels.
6. He was a reserve office in the Austro-Hungarian army, but was stripped off his rank in 1901. The reason was his novella, Lieutenant Gustl, about a young, arrogant Austrian Army lieutenant which was thought to insult the honor of the military.
7. One mustachioed Austrian corporal hated his works. Hitler called them “Jewish filth”, deemed them degenerate” and “Jewish intellectualism”, and banned them in Nazi Germany and Austria. The works were notably and prominently thrown by crowds into the flames during book burnings.
B. Mr. Schnitzler had a posthumous last laugh, before the Anschluss his personal archives, consisting of over 800,000 pages, were smuggled out of Vienna to the University of Cambridge. They are still I there today.
9. Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut, is a direct adaption of Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Traumnoyelle (1926).
10. One of Arthur Schnitzler’s admirers was Sigmund Freud, who considered them both psychological pioneers.
Zohar — Man of la Book
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Sources:
Arthur Schnitzler | Wikipedia
Arthur Schnitzler: Playwright, Novelist, Physician | Britannica
