Franz Xaver Kappus (17 May 1883 – 9 October 1966) was an Austrian military officer, journalist, editor and writer who wrote poetry, short-stories, novels and screenplays. Kappus is known chiefly as the military academy cadet who wrote to Austrian poet

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

(1875–1926) for advice in a series of letters from 1902 to 1908 that were assembled and published in the best-selling book ''

Letters to a Young Poet ''Letters to a Young Poet'' (original title, in German: ''Briefe an einen jungen Dichter'') is a collection of ten letters written by Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) to Franz Xaver Kappus (1883–1966), a 19-year-old off ...

'' (1929).

Life

Franz Xaver Kappus was born on 17 May 1883 in

Timișoara ), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor) , image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg , map_caption = Location in Timiș County , pushpin_map = Romania#Europe , pushpin_ ...

(also known as

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: ''Temeschwar'', ''Temeschburg'' or ''Temeswar'', in Hungarian: ''Temesvár''), in the

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...

province of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

.Tullius, Nick and Leeb, Alex (editors)
Banat Journalist, Writer & Author: Franz Xaver Kappus
Donauschwaben Villages Helping Hands. Retrieved 27 May 2013. The Banat region (now divided between

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

) was populated with a large population of ethnic Germans known as Banat Swabians or

Danube Swabians The Danube Swabians (german: Donauschwaben ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in various countries of central-eastern Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in grea ...

of which Kappus' ancestry is derived. As a 19-year-old officer cadet at the

Theresian Military Academy The Theresian Military Academy (german: Theresianische Militärakademie, TherMilAk) is a military academy in Austria, where the Austrian Armed Forces train their officers. Founded in 1751, the academy is located in the castle of Wiener Neustadt ...

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

, Kappus wrote to

after learning that as a young man, Rilke, the son of an Austrian army officer, had studied at the academy's lower school at

Sankt Pölten Sankt Pölten (; Central Bavarian: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. St. Pölten ...

in the 1890s. Kappus corresponded with Rilke, then a popular poet at the beginning of his career, in a series of letters from 1902 to 1908, in which he sought Rilke's advice regarding the quality of his poetry, and in deciding between a literary career or a career as an officer in the

Austro-Hungarian Army The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...

.Freedman, Ralph. "Das Stunden-Buch and Das Buch der Bilder: Harbingers of Rilke's Maturity" in Metzger, Erika A. and Metzger, Michael M. (editors). ''A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke''. (Rochester, New York: Camden House Publishing, 2001), 90–92. Aside from his role in writing to Rilke and later publishing these letters, Kappus is largely forgotten by history. Despite the hesitancy he expressed in his letters to Rilke about pursuing a military career, he continued his military studies and served for 15 years as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army. During the course of his life, he worked as a newspaper editor and journalist, writing poems, humorous sketches, short-stories, novels, and adapted several works (including his own) into screenplays for films in the 1930s. However, Kappus did not achieve lasting fame. After World War I, he was the editor of several newspapers, including ''Kappus Deutsche Wacht'' (trans. "Kappus' German Watch"), later known as ''Banater Tagblatt'' (trans. "Banat Daily"), and other newspapers ''Temeswarer Zeitung'' (trans. "Timișoara Newspaper"), and the ''Schwäbische Volkspresse'' (trans. "Swabian People's Press"). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

on 16 June 1945, he was part of a group in Berlin that founded the

Liberal Democratic Party of Germany The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (german: Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands, LDPD) was a political party in East Germany. Like the other allied bloc parties of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the National Front, it ...

(initially intending to re-use the name "Deutsche Demokratische Partei" of a Weimar-era party), becoming one of its board members. The LDP later became one of the bloc parties under the East German communist regime, after whose fall it merged in 1990 with the West German

Freie Demokratische Partei The Free Democratic Party (german: link=no, Freie Demokratische Partei; FDP, ) is a liberal political party in Germany. The FDP was founded in 1948 by members of former liberal political parties which existed in Germany before World War II, n ...

(trans. "Free Democratic Party"), which is affiliated with ideology of

classical liberalism Classical liberalism is a political tradition Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture. Definition Gabriel Almond defines it as "the particular patt ...

. Kappus died on 9 October 1966 in East Berlin at the age of 83.

Works

Novels

* 1918: ''Die lebenden Vierzehn'' (trans. "Fourteen Survivors") * 1921: ''Die Peitsche im Antlitz'' (trans. "The whip in the Face") * 1922: '' Der Rote Reiter'' (trans. "The Red Rider") * 1929: '' Briefe an einen jungen Dichter'' (trans. "Letters to a Young Poet") * 1929: ''Martina und der Tänzer'' (trans. "Martina and the Dancers") * 1935: ''Brautfahrt um Lena'' (trans. "Lena, spoken for") * 1941: ''Flammende Schatten'' (trans. "Blazing Shadows") * 1949: ''Flucht in die Liebe'' (trans. "Escape into Love")

Screenwriter

* 1923: '' Der Rote Reiter'' (trans. The Red Rider), from his novel * 1926: ''The Woman in Gold'' * 1926: ''Les voleurs de gloire'' * 1935: '' Der Rote Reiter'' (trans. The Red Rider), from his novel, directed by

Rolf Randolf Rolf Randolf (born Rudolf Zanbauer; 15 January 1878 – 29 June 1941) was an Austrian actor, film producer and director. Selected filmography Director * ''Das Geheimnis der Santa Margherita'' (1921) * ''Wallenstein'' (1925) * '' What the Stones ...

* 1944: ''The man to whom they stole the name''

Life

Works

Novels

Screenwriter

See also

References

Notes

Further reading