Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti (10 January 1871 – 8 April 1955) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n poet and writer, known for writing historical romances, notably ''Die Hochzeit von Quedlinburg''.

Life

Sterbehaus von Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti

Enrica Freifrau von Handel-Mazzetti was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1871 and her father, Baron Heinrich Hypolith of Handel-Mazzetti, died young before her birth. She was educated well, studying history and languages. After her mother died, she went to live with a bachelor uncle, Baron Anton von Handel-Mazzetti, in

Steyr Steyr (; Central Bavarian: ''Steia'') is a statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd l ...

in 1901. Her cousin was the botanist

Heinrich von Handel-Mazzetti Heinrich Raphael Eduard Freiherr von Handel-Mazzetti (19 February 1882 in Vienna – 1 February 1940) was an Austrian botanist best known for his many publications on the flora of China and botanical explorations of that country. He was the cousi ...

. She moved with her uncle to

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

when he was promoted in 1911. This was in the middle of her most productive period when her books were being serialised in magazines as well as being published and enthusiastically received.Enrica Handel-Mazzetti
Petra-Maria Dallinger, Austrian Virtual Museum, retrieved 16 August 2014 She stayed in Linz for the rest of her life, notably joining a protest against book burning in 1933. The following year she nearly died from an untreatable eye condition. When 25 members of the

PEN Club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

passed a resolution to protest the

Nazi book burnings The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (, ''DSt'') to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representin ...

, Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti and other nationalist,

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

and catholic authors did not agree and quit the Club.Ulrike Oedl, in: Ueberblicke; UNI-Salzburg; 2002 –- Das Exilland Österreich zwischen 1933 und 1938
, retrieved 10/09/2008. Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti was a member of the Reich Chamber of Literature (part of the

Reich Chamber of Culture The Reich Chamber of Culture (''Reichskulturkammer'') was a government agency in Nazi Germany. It was established by law on 22 September 1933 in the course of the ''Gleichschaltung'' process at the instigation of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels as ...

).Kürschners Literaturkalender 1943. Walter de Gruyter & Co. Berlin, 1943. P. 387. Her work was not encouraged by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime, although she stayed in Linz, apart from when the bombing was really bad when she briefly moved to Elisabethinen in 1944. von Handel-Mazzetti died in Linz in 1955.

Legacy

Apart from her published novels and poetry there is a street that was named for her in 1931 in Steyr and another street was named after her in Vienna in 1981. There was also an Austrian postage stamp that celebrated her life.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Handel-Mazzetti, Enrica von 1871 births 1955 deaths Writers from Vienna Austrian women novelists Austrian romantic fiction writers Austrian historical novelists Women romantic fiction writers Women historical novelists