Edmund Josef von Horváth (9 December 1901 – 1 June 1938) was an Austro-Hungarian

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

who wrote in German, and went by the ''nom de plume'' Ödön von Horváth (). He was one of the most critically admired writers of his generation prior to his untimely death. He enjoyed a series of successes on the stage with socially poignant and romantic plays, including ''Revolte auf Côte 3018'' (1927), ''Sladek'' (1929), ''Italienische Nacht'' (1930), ''Hin und Her'' (1934), and ''Der Jüngste Tag'' (1937). His novels include ''Der ewige Spießer'' (1930), ''Ein Kind unserer Zeit'' (1938), and ''Jugend ohne Gott'' (1937).

Early life and education

Ödön von Horváth was the eldest son of an Austro-Hungarian diplomat of Hungarian origins from

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, Edmund (Ödön) Josef Horváth, and Maria Lulu Hermine (Prehnal) Horváth, who was from an Austro-Hungarian military family. From 1908, Ödön attended elementary school in Budapest, and later attended the '' Rákóczianum'', where his education was in the

Hungarian language Hungarian, or Magyar (, ), is an Ugric language of the Uralic language family spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Out ...

. In 1909, his father was ennobled and assigned to

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, unaccompanied. In 1913, Horváth attended secondary school in Pressburg and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he learned German as a second language, and earned the ''

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'' (secondary school diploma) then reunited with his parents at Murnau am Staffelsee, in Upper Bavaria; from 1919, Horváth studied at the Ludwig Maximilians University, in Munich.

Later life and death

He started writing as a student, from 1920. After quitting university without a degree in early 1922, he moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Later, he lived in

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and Murnau am Staffelsee. In 1931, he was awarded, along with Erik Reger, the Kleist Prize. In 1933, at the beginning of the Nazi regime in Germany, he relocated to Vienna. Following the

annexation Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held t ...

of the

Federal State of Austria The Federal State of Austria (; colloquially known as the "") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and politi ...

with Nazi Germany in 1938, Horváth emigrated to

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. Horváth was hit by a falling branch from a tree and killed during a thunderstorm on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, opposite the '' Théâtre Marigny'', in June 1938. Ironically, only a few days earlier, Horváth had said to a friend: "I am not so afraid of the Nazis...There are worse things one can be afraid of, namely things one is afraid of without knowing why. For instance, I am afraid of streets. Roads can be hostile to one, can destroy one. Streets scare me." And a few years earlier, Horváth had written poetry about lightning: "Yes, thunder, that it can do. And bolt and storm. Terror and destruction." Horváth was buried in the Saint-Ouen Cemetery, in northern Paris. In 1988, on the 50th anniversary of his death, his remains were transferred to Vienna and reinterred at the Heiligenstädter Friedhof.

Literary themes

Important topics in Horváth's works were popular culture, politics, and history. He especially tried to warn of the rise of Fascism in Europe and its dangers. Among Horváth's more enduringly popular works, ' (''Youth Without God'') describes the youth in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

from the point of view of a disgruntled teacher who initially is an opportunist but is helpless against the racist and militaristic

Nazi propaganda Propaganda was a tool of the Nazi Party in Germany from its earliest days to the end of the regime in May 1945 at the end of World War II. As the party gained power, the scope and efficacy of its propaganda grew and permeated an increasing amou ...

that dehumanizes his pupils. The English title of his novel ''Ein Kind unserer Zeit'' ('' A Child of Our Time'') was used by Michael Tippett for his

oratorio An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble. Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...

(1939–1941), composed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Works

Plays

* ''Das Buch der Tänze'', 1920 * ''Mord in der Mohrengasse'', 1923 * ''Zur schönen Aussicht'', 1926 * ''Revolte auf Côte 3018'' (''Revolt on Hill 3018''), 1927; rewritten as ''Die Bergbahn'' (''The Mountain Railway''), 1929 * ''Sladek der schwarze Reichswehrmann'', 1929, originally ''Sladek oder Die schwarze Armee'' (''Sladek'' in volume ''Plays One'', translation by Penny Black, Oberon, 2000, ) * ''Rund um den Kongreß'', 1929 (''A Sexual Congress'' in volume ''Plays One'', translation by Penny Black, Oberon, 2000, ) * ''Italienische Nacht'', 1930 (''Italian Night'' in volume ''Plays Two'', Oberon, 2000, ) * ''Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald'' ('' Tales from the Vienna Woods''), 1931, winner of the Kleist Prize the same year; available as well in volume ''Plays Two'', Oberon, 2000, ) * ''Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung'', 1932 (''Faith, Hope, and Charity'' in volume ''Four Plays'', PAJ Publications, 1986, ) * ''Kasimir und Karoline'', 1932 (''Kasimir and Karoline'' in volume ''Four Plays'', PAJ Publications, 1986, ) * ''Die Unbekannte aus der Seine'', 1933 * ''Hin und Her'', 1934 * ''Don Juan kommt aus dem Krieg'', 1936 (''Don Juan Comes Back From the War'', Faber & Faber, 1978, ) * ''Figaro läßt sich scheiden'', 1936. Giselher Klebe wrote the

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

and composed his 1963

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

of the same name based on this work; Elena Langer's 2016 opera '' Figaro Gets a Divorce'', to a libretto by David Pountney, is also largely based on the play. (''Figaro Gets a Divorce'' in volume ''Four Plays'', PAJ Publications, 1986, ) * ''Pompeji. Komödie eines Erdbebens'', 1937 * ''Ein Dorf ohne Männer'', 1937 * ''Himmelwärts'', 1937 * ''Der Jüngste Tag'', 1937 (Giselher Klebe composed his 1980 opera of the same name based on this work; Lore Klebe wrote the libretto) (''Judgement Day'' in volume ''Four Plays'', PAJ Publications, 1986, )

Novels

* ''Sechsunddreißig Stunden'', 1929 * ''Der ewige Spießer'', 1930 (''The Eternal Philistine'', 2011) * ''Jugend ohne Gott'', 1937 (''The Age of the Fish'', 1939) * ''Ein Kind unserer Zeit'', 1938 (''A Child of Our Time'', 1939)

Other prose

* ''Sportmärchen'', 1924–1926 * ''Interview'', 1932 * ''Gebrauchsanweisung'', 1932

Quotes

A few select quotes amongst many by Horváth: *"Nothing conveys the feeling of infinity as much as stupidity does." (Motto of ''Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald'') *"Eigentlich bin ich ganz anders, nur komme ich so selten dazu." "Actually what I'm really like is very different. I just so rarely find time for it." (From ''Zur schönen Aussicht'') *Ödön von Horváth was once walking in the Bavarian Alps when he discovered the skeleton of a long dead man with his knapsack still intact. Von Horváth opened the knapsack and found a postcard reading "Having a wonderful time". Asked by friends what he did with it, von Horváth replied "I posted it". *"If you ask me what is my native country, I answer: I was born in

Fiume Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and in 2021 had a po ...

, grew up in

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, Budapest, Pressburg (

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), Vienna and Munich, and I have a Hungarian passport, but I have no

fatherland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic nation ...

. I am a very typical mix of old Austria-Hungary: at once Magyar, Croatian, German and Czech; my country is

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; my mother tongue is German."

In popular culture

* Christopher Hampton's play '' Tales from Hollywood'' (1982, adapted for television in 1992) portrays a fictional Horváth. He survives the falling branch and moves to the United States, where expatriate German authors such as

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

and Heinrich Mann write for the motion picture industry. * Danilo Kiš's short story "The Man Without a Country", published in the 1994 collection ''The Lute and The Scars'', fictionalizes the death of Horváth. * Duncan Macmillan adapted Horváth's '' Don Juan Comes Back From The War'' for the National Theatre Studio and

Finborough Theatre The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world p ...

in 2012. The updated production used contemporary language to explore the effects of conflict and trauma. It was directed by Andrea Ferran. * Lydia Davis' short story "Ödön von Horváth Out Walking," published in the 2014 collection ''Can't and Won't,'' concerns Horváth's encounter with the skeleton in the Alps.

References

Bibliography

Balme, Christopher B., ''The Reformation of Comedy Genre Critique in the Comedies of Odon von Horvath'' University of Otago, Dunedin 1985 {{DEFAULTSORT:Horvath, Odon Von 1901 births 1938 deaths 20th-century Austrian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Austrian male writers 20th-century Austrian novelists 20th-century Hungarian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Hungarian male writers 20th-century Hungarian novelists Accidental deaths in France Austrian anti-fascists Austrian male dramatists and playwrights Austrian male novelists Austrian people of Hungarian descent Burials at Saint-Ouen Cemetery Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to France Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Germany Hungarian nobility Hungarian writers in German Kleist Prize winners Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Writers from Austria-Hungary Writers from Rijeka