Robert Hohlbaum (28 August 1886 – 4 February 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-German

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

, writer, and playwright. He was born as a son of an industrialist Alois Hohlbaum in what is now

Krnov Krnov (; german: Jägerndorf, pl, Karniów or ''Krnów'') is a town in Bruntál District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts The town is made up of town parts of Pod Bezr ...

in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and known by its German name, ''Jägerndorf''. Hohlbaum studied at Graz and

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

and received his doctorate from 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 hist ...

in 1910. He gained employment as a scientific librarian, but maintained an

avocation An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces ...

as a writer, writing principally for the journal ''Muskete'', along with Mirko Jelusich and Rudolf Hans Bartsch. Hohlbaum was a nationalist and became an officer in the Austrian army during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the war was over he became involved with the Austrian wing of the right-wing

German People's Party The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented politi ...

. In 1933 Hohlbaum moved to Germany, where he became a citizen in 1937. He was a friend of

Josef Weinheber Josef Weinheber (9 March 1892 in Vienna – 8 April 1945 in Kirchstetten, Lower Austria) was an Austrian lyric poet, narrative writer and essayist. Life Brought up in an orphanage, Weinheber was, before his authorial career, a casual labourer, ...

. He thrived during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, becoming first the director of the municipal library at

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

and later, in 1942, that of the state library at

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

(now the Duchess Anna Amalia Library). In disgrace after the war, Hohlbaum was able after a number of attempts to return to Austria in 1951. He settled first in Vienna, and later in Graz, where he died in 1955. His most significant work after the war ended was a book on Anton Bruckner, ''Tedeum.''

Works

* ''Der ewige Lenzkampf'', 1913 * ''Deutsche Gedichte.'' ''A Cycle,'' 1916 * ''Unsterbliche. '' ''Novellas,'' 1919 * ''Die Amouren des Magister Döderlein'', 1920 * ''Grenzland'', 1921 * ''Franz Karl Ginzkey.'' ''His Life and Work,'' 1921 * ''Fallbeil und Reifrock. '' ''New Noverllas,'' 1921 * ''Zukunft. Novel'', 1922 * ''Himmlisches Orchester'', 1923 * ''Die deutsche Passion'', 1924 * ''Der wilde Christian. Novel'', 1925 * ''Die Pfingsten von Weimar'', 1926 * ''Die Raben des Kyffhäuser. The Novel of the Burschenschaft und their Age'', 1927 * ''Das Paradies und die Schlange. A Novel from South Tyrol'', 1928 * ''Winterbrautnacht. Novellas'', 1929 * ''Das klingende Gift'', 1930 * ''Deutsches Leid in Österreich'', 1930 * ''Die Stunde der Sterne. A Bruckner Novella'', 1930 * ''König Volk'', 1931 * ''Der Mann aus dem Chaos. A Napoleon Novel'', 1933 * ''Die Flucht in den Krieg'', 1935 * ''Der Held von Kolberg'', 1935 * ''Zweikampf um Deutschland. Novel'', 1936 * ''Fröhlicher Vormärz. Two Novellas'', 1936 * ''Grillparzer'', 1938 * ''Die stumme Schlacht. Novel'', 1939 * ''Der Kurfürst'', 1940 * ''Heroische Rheinreise'', Novelle, 1941 * ''Die Königsparade'', 1942 * ''Balladen vom Geist'', 1943 * ''Das letzte Gefecht'', 1943 * ''Symphonie in drei Sätzen. Novellas'', 1943 * ''Tedeum'', 1950 * ''Jesus-Legende'', 1951 * ''Der Heiratsvermittler'', 1953 * ''Der Zauberstab. Novel of Viennese Musical Life'', 1954 * ''Des reifsten Weines später Segen'', 1967

References

* Schneider, Josef: Begegnungen mit Robert Hohlbaum. - In: Sudetendeutscher Kulturalmanach. 6 (1967), S. 41-44 1886 births 1955 deaths 20th-century Austrian novelists 20th-century German novelists Austrian librarians German male novelists Austrian male writers German librarians German people of Austrian descent Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I People from Austrian Silesia People from Krnov 20th-century German male writers Austrian emigrants to Germany {{Austria-writer-stub