Countess
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility.L. G. Pine, Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty'' ...
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach ( cs, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbachová, german: link=no, Marie Freifrau von Ebner-Eschenbach; 13 September 183012 March 1916) was an Austrian writer. Noted for her
psychological novel
In literature, psychological fiction (also psychological realism) is a narrative genre that emphasizes interior characterization and motivation to explore the spiritual, emotional, and mental lives of the characters. The mode of narration examin ...
s, she is regarded as one of the most important
German-language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a c ...
writers of the latter portion of the 19th century.
Biography
Early life and family
She was born at the castle of the Dubský von Třebomyslice family in Zdislawitz near
Kroměříž
Kroměříž (; german: Kremsier) is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is known for the Kroměříž Castle with castle gardens, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town centre with the c ...
in
Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The me ...
(present
Zdislavice in the Czech Republic), the daughter of Baron (from 1843: Count) Franz Joseph Dubsky von Trebomyslicz, a nobleman whose family roots are deeply Catholic and Bohemian, and his wife Maria Rosalia Therese, ''née'' Baroness von Vockel, who came from a noble Protestant-
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
background. Marie lost her mother in early infancy, but received a careful intellectual training from two stepmothers, first Baroness Eugenie von Bartenstein, and then her second step-mother, Countess Xaverine von
Kolowrat-Krakowsky
Kolowrat-Krakowsky ( cz, Kolowrat-Krakowští) is an historic Bohemian family from Central Europe. It is a branch of the Kolowrat family.
The Kolowrat family originated in Central Bohemia, in what is today the Czech Republic, in the 13th centu ...
, who often contributed to her inspiration by taking her to the ''Burgtheater (''town theater, citizen's theater) from time to time in Vienna. Despite being part of a noble family having access to her family's vast libraries, she was never actually formally schooled.
However, because of her curiosity, access to information, and educated family, she became auto-didact at a young age, and was taught fluent French, German, and Czech. In 1848 she married her cousin,
Moritz von Ebner-Eschenbach, a physics and chemistry professor at a Viennese engineering academy. Later on, he would become an Austrian captain, and promoted to lieutenant field marshal on his retirement. The couple resided first in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, timezone_DST ...
, then, from 1850, at Louka (''Klosterbruck'') near
Znojmo
Znojmo (; german: Znaim) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian R ...
, as the engineering academy had been relocated there, and after 1860 again in Vienna. The marriage was childless to disappointment of both of them. Marie grappled with the domestic tasks. She kept a journal and wrote letters explaining how she felt unsatisfied.
It has been speculated that Marie may have suffered from "
hysteria
Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...
" including debilitating headaches and excessive nervousness.
Career and success
![Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach mit ihrem Gemahl](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Marie_von_Ebner-Eschenbach_mit_ihrem_Gemahl.jpg)
Marie began devoting herself to literary work. In her endeavours she received assistance and encouragement from
Franz Grillparzer
Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (15 January 1791 – 21 January 1872) was an Austrian writer who was considered to be the leading Austrian dramatist of the 19th century. His plays were and are frequently performed at the famous Burgtheater in Vien ...
and
Freiherr von Münch-Bellinghausen. Her first publicized work was the drama ''Maria Stuart in Scotland'' (german: link=no, Maria Stuart in Schottland), which
Philipp Eduard Devrient
(Philipp) Eduard Devrient (11 August 18014 October 1877) was a German baritone, librettist, playwright, actor, theatre director, and theatre reformer and historian.
Devrient came from a theatrical family. His uncle was Ludwig Devrient and his br ...
produced at the
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
theatre in 1860. Then came a tragedy in five acts, ''Marie Roland'', with several one-act dramas: ''Doktor Ritter'', ''Violets'' (german: link=no, Das Veilchen), and ''The Disconsolate One''. Though she was encouraged to keep writing, her relative failure in the field of playwriting had actually become somewhat of a point of an embarrassment to her family.
After these limited successes in the field of drama, she turned to narrative. Commencing with ''Die Prinzessin von Banalien'' (1872), she graphically depicts in ''Božena'' (Stuttgart, 1876, 4th ed. 1899) and ''Das Gemeindekind'' (Berlin, 1887, 4th ed. 1900) the surroundings of her Moravian home, and in ''Lotti, die Uhrmacherin'' (Berlin, 1883, 4th ed. 1900), ''Zwei Comtessen'' (Berlin, 1885, 5th ed. 1898), ''Unsühnbar'' (1890, 5th ed. 1900) and ''Glaubenslos?'' (1893) the life of the Austrian aristocracy in town and country.
Much of Ebner-Eschenbach's more mainstream success is accredited to
Julius Rodenberg
Julius Rodenberg (originally ''Julius Levy''; 26 June 1831, Rodenberg – 11 July 1914, Berlin) was a German Jewish poet and author.
He studied law at the universities of Heidelberg, Göttingen, Berlin, and Marburg, but soon abandoned jurisprud ...
due to his publishing Ebner-Eschenbach's work in his popular periodical, ''Die Deutsche Rundschau''.
In 1875, her half-sister, composer
Julie Waldburg-Wurzach Princess Julie Furstin von Waldburg-Wurzach (27 April 1841 – 7 December 1914) was an Austrian composer who published over 60 works for voice and/or piano. She was born in Vienna to Count Frans and Frantiska Dubsky von Trebomyslicz. In 1858, she ma ...
, used her social contacts at Cotta Verlag (today Klett-Cotta Verlag) to market some of Ebner-Eschenbach's work. Ebner-Eschenbach also published ''Neue Erzählungen'' (Berlin, 1881, 3rd ed. 1894), ''Aphorismen'' (Berlin, 1880, 4th ed. 1895) and ''Parabeln, Märchen und Gedichte'' (2nd ed., Berlin, 1892). Von Ebner-Eschenbach's elegance of style, her incisive wit and masterly depiction of character give her a foremost place among the German women writers of her time. On the occasion of her 70th birthday the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
conferred upon her the degree of doctor of philosophy,
honoris causa
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
. An edition of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's ''Gesammelte Schriften'' (Collected Works) began to appear in 1893 (Berlin).
Throughout her life, she had never created literature or plays for monetary reasons, and so, in her will, she left, as to aid other writers in their own endeavors, the compensation she had received.
She died in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, postal_code =
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, utc_offset = +1
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,
Austria-Hungary
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 ...
.
The Marie Ebner-Eschenbach park in
Währing
Währing () is the 18th district of Vienna and lies in northwestern Vienna on the edge of the Vienna Woods. It was formed in 1892 from the unification of the older suburbs of Währing, Weinhaus, Gersthof, Pötzleinsdorf, Neustift am Walde and Sa ...
, Vienna, is named after her.
Works
* ''Aus Franzensbad''. 6 Episteln von keinem Propheten (6 epistles from no prophet). Leipzig: Lorck, 1858
* ''Maria Stuart in Schottland''. Drama in five acts. Vienna: Ludwig Mayer, 1860
* ''Das Veilchen'' (''The Violet''). Comedy in one act. Vienna: Wallishausser, 1861
* ''Marie Roland''. Tragedy in five acts. Vienna: Wallishausser, 1867
* ''Doktor Ritter''.
Dramatic poem in one act. Vienna: Jasper, 1869
* ''Die Prinzessin von Banalien''. A fairy tale. Vienna: Rosner, 1872
* ''Das Waldfräulein'' (''Maid of the woods''), 1873
* ''Božena''. A story. Stuttgart: Cotta, 1876
* ''Die Freiherren von Gemperlein'', 1878
* ''Lotti, die Uhrmacherin'' (Lotti, the clock maker), in: ''Deutsche Rundschau'', 1880
* ''Aphorismen''. Berlin: Franz Ebhardt, 1880
* ''Dorf- und Schloßgeschichten'' (''Village and castle stories''), 1883 (containing ''Der Kreisphysikus, Jacob Szela, Krambambuli, Die Resel, Die Poesie des Unbewußten'')
* ''Zwei Comtessen'' (''Two countesses''). A story. Berlin: Franz Ebhardt, 1885
* ''Neue Dorf- und Schloßgeschichten'' (''New village and castle stories''). Stories. Berlin: Paetel, 1886 (containing ''Die Unverstandene auf dem Dorfe'', ''Er laßt die Hand küssen'', ''Der gute Mond'')
* ''Das Gemeindekind'' (''Child of the neighborhood'') Novel. 1887
* ''Unsühnbar''. A story. Berlin: Paetel, 1890
* ''Drei Novellen'' (''Three novellas''). 1892 (containing ''Oversberg'')
* ''Glaubenslos?'' A story. Berlin: Paetel, 1893
* ''Das Schädliche. Die Totenwacht''. Two stories. Berlin: Paetel, 1894
* ''Rittmeister Brand. Bertram Vogelweid''. Two stories. Berlin: Paetel, 1896
* ''Alte Schule'' (''Old school'') A story. Berlin: Paetel, 1897 (containing ''Ein Verbot, Der Fink, Eine Vision, Schattenleben, Verschollen'')
* ''Am Ende''. Scene in one act. Berlin: Bloch, 1897
* ''Aus Spätherbsttagen''. Stories. Berlin: Paetel, 1901 (containing ''Der Vorzugsschüler, Maslans Frau, Fräulein Susannens Weihnachtsabend, Uneröffnet zu verbrennen, Die Reisegefährten, Die Spitzin, In letzter Stunde, Ein Original, Die Visite'')
* ''Agave''. Novel. Berlin: Paetel, 1903
* ''Die unbesiegbare Macht''. Two stories. Berlin: Paetel, 1905
* ''Meine Kinderjahre'' (''My childhood years''). Autobiographical sketches. Berlin: Paetel, 1906
* ''Altweibersommer''. Berlin: Paetel, 1909
Notes
References
*
* This work in turn cites:
** A. Bettelheim, ''Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach: Biographische Blätter'' (Berlin, 1900)
** M. Necker, ''Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, nach ihren Werken geschildert'' (Berlin, 1900)
External links
*
*
*
Biography by the Austrian encyclopediaBiography by the German historical Museum (in German)*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie von
1830 births
1916 deaths
People from Kroměříž District
category:People from the Margraviate of Moravia
Moravian-German people
Austrian baronesses
German-language writers
Aphorists
19th-century Austrian women writers
Austrian women novelists
Austrian women short story writers
Austrian essayists
19th-century Austrian novelists
20th-century Austrian novelists
20th-century Austrian women writers
19th-century short story writers
20th-century short story writers
19th-century essayists
20th-century essayists