Arthur Schnitzler (May 15, 1862 in Vienna,[1] Austrian Empire; October 21, 1931, ibid.) was an Austrian physician, narrator, and playwright. He is considered one of the most important representatives of Viennese Modernism.
From 1871 to 1879, Arthur Schnitzler attended the Akademisches Gymnasium in the 1st district and graduated with honors on July 8, 1879.[2] Afterwards, at his father’s request, he studied medicine at the University of Vienna. On May 30, 1885, he received his doctorate in medicine. His younger brother Julius (1865–1939) also became a physician.
From 1885 to 1888 he worked as an assistant and secondary physician at the General Hospital of the City of Vienna in internal medicine and in the field of psychiatry and dermatology.[3] He then worked as his father’s assistant in the laryngological department of the polyclinic in Vienna until 1893. From 1886 to 1893 Schnitzler published on medical topics and wrote more than 70 articles, mostly reviews of specialist books, including as editor of the International Clinical Review founded by his father.[4] He authored one (only) scientific book publication: On functional aphonia and its treatment through hypnosis and suggestion (1889).
Although Schnitzler had been writing literary texts since childhood and made his literary debut in 1880 (Liebeslied der Ballerine in the magazine Der freie Landbote), his public literary activity only began to intensify in 1888, when he was in his mid-20s. He published poems, one-act plays, and short stories in the magazine An der Schönen Blauen Donau, edited by Fedor Mamroth and Paul Goldmann.[5] Around this magazine, but also in the Viennese coffee houses that Schnitzler frequented, including the Café Griensteidl, like-minded people began to gather who wanted to create a new, Austrian literary movement. The term “Jung Wien” soon became established for this, even though it did not describe a unified program and only partially shared aesthetic goals. Key figures with whom Schnitzler became friends around 1890/1891 were Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Hermann Bahr and Richard Beer-Hofmann.
In addition to this scandal, the publication of Reigen caused further controversy. First produced in 1900 as a private print in a small number of copies, it was freely published by Fritz Freund’s Viennese publishing house in 1903. The conversations it depicts before and after sexual intercourse between women and men from different social classes were denounced as pornography by Schnitzler’s opponents. The two themes of criticism of the army and eroticism, combined with Schnitzler’s obvious success, made him a popular target for anti-Semites.
Privately, Schnitzler documented several relationships with women in his diary for the period up to the age of 40, often conducted simultaneously without the partners’ knowledge. In particular, his largely platonic relationship with Olga Waissnix, the married landlady of the Thalhof (Reichenau an der Rax), as well as his relationships with Marie Glümer and Maria Reinhard, were considered more profound partnerships. Both Maria (often referred to in the diary as “Mizi I” and “Mizi II”), as well as others, hoped to legitimize their relationship through marriage. In Maria Reinhard’s case, this became even more pressing because she was pregnant with his child twice. The first child was stillborn, and she died of appendicitis during the second pregnancy.
His relationship with actress Olga Gussmann (1882–1970) led to a stabilization of his lifestyle. On August 9, 1902, she gave birth to their son, Heinrich Schnitzler. On August 26, 1903, the couple married. Their daughter, Lili, was born on September 13, 1909.[11] Schnitzler remained faithful for the duration of the marriage and ceased his promiscuous lifestyle.
From the beginning of the 20th century, the writer was one of the most frequently performed playwrights on German stages. With the outbreak of the First World War, interest in his works declined. This was also due to the fact that he was one of the few Austrian intellectuals who was not enthusiastic about warmongering and did not make any bellicose statements.
Reigen is Arthur Schnitzler’s most successful play for several decades. Largely unperformed during his lifetime at the author’s request, it describes in ten dialogues how a man and a woman talk to each other before and after sexual intercourse. In 1921, on the occasion of the premiere of the play Reigen, which led to a staged theater scandal in Berlin in 1920/1921 and then in Vienna, he was put on trial for causing public nuisance. The case was ultimately decided in the author’s favor by the Vienna Constitutional Court. After further performances in Vienna, however, Schnitzler asked his theater publisher in 1922 not to permit any more performances. His son only had the ban on performances lifted in 1982.
Während Schnitzler als jüdischer Autor in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus verpönt war, setzte in der NIn the postwar period, a slow institutionalization as a classic began.[38]
In 1959/1960, the Arthur Schnitzler Courtyard in Vienna-Döbling (19th district) was named after him.
In 1971, a bust of Schnitzler by Sandor Jaray was unveiled at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
On May 13, 1982, a bust of Paul Peschke was unveiled in Vienna’s Türkenschanzpark (18th district).[39] The memorial was initiated by Viktor Anninger (1911–2004), who was a friend of Lili Schnitzler and frequented Schnitzler’s house at Sternwartestraße 71. Peschke, in turn, was the son-in-law of Ferdinand Schmutzer and, when he created the memorial, lived directly across from Schnitzler’s former residence in his father-in-law’s former house.
April 2012: The small park opposite the train station in Baden (Lower Austria) is named “Arthur Schnitzler Park.”[40]
May 6, 2017: Following a municipal council resolution from September 2016, the forecourt of the Volkstheater between Burggasse, Museumstraße, and Neustiftgasse in Vienna’s 7th district, Neubau, is named “Arthur Schnitzler Square.” The theater now uses the address Arthur Schnitzler Square 1, 1070 Vienna.
The Arthur Schnitzler Prize is awarded every four years by the Arthur Schnitzler Society. This prize is endowed with 10,000 euros by the Austrian Ministry of Education and the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna.