Alexander Lernet-Holenia (October 21, 1897 in Vienna – July 3, 1976, in Vienna) was an Austrian writer, dramatist, and poet whose extensive body of work ranks among the most significant German-language literature of the 20th century. In his writing, he combined historical and fantastical elements with a stylistically sophisticated, often poetic language and a philosophical depth that reflects themes such as fate, identity, and the upheavals of the 20th century.
Youth and service in World War I Alexander Maria Norbert Lernet was born on October 21, 1897, in Vienna.This article is based on the German Wikipedia entry on Alexander Lernet-Holenia and was translated and adapted for an English-speaking audience by John S. Barrett, who had previously translated several of Lernet-Holenia’s novels into English. His mother, Sidonie von Boyneburgk-Stettfeld (1856–1935), née Holenia, was the daughter of the wealthy Carinthian mining industrialist Romuald Holenia.Cf. Alexander Dreihann-Holenia, "Alexander Lernet-Holenia: Herkunft, Kindheit und Jugend", in Thomas Eicher, Bettina Gruber (Eds.), Alexander Lernet-Holenia. Poesie auf dem Boulevard, Köln, Böhlau, 1999, p. 19; Charlotte Gamber, Der "Fall" Lernet-Holenia, Heraldisch-Genealogische Gesellschaft, Wien, 2000, p. 2.
Sidonie was first married to Baron Julius von Boyneburgk-Stettfeld (1834–1890) and, seven years after his death and shortly before Alexander was born, remarried the ten-years-younger Austrian Navy officer Alexander Lernet (1866–1922). This unexpected union, which ended after a short time in a divorce drama, was often interpreted as an attempt to conceal Archduke Charles Stephen of Habsburg’s affection for Sidonie. The rumour that Archduke Karl was his father, neither confirmed nor denied by Lernet-Holenia himself, divided family, friends, and interpreters. In literary terms, however, it became an "origin secret" that runs through his works, populated by illegitimate children, impostors, doubles, and genealogical enigmas.
Lernet-Holenia grew up between Vienna and Klagenfurt and completed his secondary school in Waidhofen an der Ybbs in 1915. In September of the same year, he volunteered for military service. Like many young men of his generation, he went – buoyed by patriotic enthusiasm – straight from school to the front lines of the First World War.
Assigned to the 9th Dragoon Regiment "Archduke Albrecht", Lernet-Holenia fought in Slovakia, Eastern Galicia, Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary. In 1916, he was promoted to officer-cadet. That same year, he had an encounter that would prove formative for both him and his work: his meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Karl Anton Klammer (1879–1959), a passionate admirer of French culture who, under the pseudonym K. L. Ammer, made a name for himself as a translator of Villon, Rimbaud, Maeterlinck, and Verlaine. His poetic adaptations – especially of Le Bateau ivre – inspired young Expressionists such as Heym and Trakl. The long conversations Lernet-Holenia held with his military superior strengthened his inclination toward the lyrical. Thanks to an Italian nurse, Lernet also mastered Italian as well as English, which later benefited his work as a translator.
In 1917, he was promoted to lieutenant and was decorated for his bravery in the field. In Ukraine, he witnessed the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian army – experiences that would leave deep traces in his work. They are reflected in some of his poems and shaped many of his narratives and novels – especially Die Standarte (1934, tr. The Standard or The Glory Is Departed), Der Baron Bagge (1936, tr. Baron Bagge), and Beide Sizilien (1942), which rank among his best-known prose works. After returning from the front, Lernet-Holenia also took part in the Austro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia in 1919.
The 1920s
In 1920, he was adopted by his mother’s wealthy family, who lived in Carinthia, and from then on bore the double name Lernet-Holenia, though for the sake of abbreviation he is often referred to simply as "Lernet". He entered the literary scene in the early 1920s with sophisticated Expressionist poetry before turning to the theatre. He had already written his first poems at the age of seventeen and, from the Russian front, had sent them to Rainer Maria Rilke,Letter dated 18. August 1919 to Rainer Maria Rilke, cited in Roman Roček (Ed.): Alexander Lernet-Holenia. Das lyrische Gesamtwerk, Wien / Darmstadt, Paul Zsolnay, p. 631. whom he deeply admired. He signed his first volume of poetry, Pastorale, published in a small edition in 1921 by the Viennese Literarische Anstalt, with the name Alexander Maria Lernet.Hermann Bahr: Liebe der Lebenden: Tagebücher 1921-1923. Ed.: Franz Borgmeyer. Band 1. F. Borgmeyer, Hildesheim 1924, pp. 48 ff. Under the patronage of Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria Rilke, Katharina Kippenberg: Briefwechsel. Ed.: Bettina von Bomhard. Insel, Wiesbaden 1954, pp. 411 ff. and Hermann Bahr, Lernet published his second volume of poetry, Kanzonnair, with Insel Verlag in 1923.
Hermann Bahr counted Lernet among the "greatest hopes" of German-language Expressionist literature at the timeHermann Bahr, Liebe der Lebenden. Tagebücher 1921–1923, Hildesheim, Franz Borgmeyer, 1925, Bd. 2, p. 388, cited after Günther Berger, "Ein dichtender Grandseigneur. Beiträge zur Vervollständigung der Biographie und des Werkes von Alexander Lernet-Holenia (1897–1976)", Österreich in Geschichte und Literatur mit Geographie 33 (2), 1989, p. 96. and enthusiastically welcomed the tragedy Demetrius (1925)."Hier springt aus einem unserer reinsten lyrischen Dichter, aus dem unvergleichlichen Wortgoldschmied des Kanzonairs, nun auf einmal mit einem Löwensatz ein vollendeter Tragiker hervor, hier rauscht zum erstenmal seit der Schlegel Tieck Übersetzung Shakespeares und Grillparzers Alterswerken wieder der Orgelklang der dramatischen Rede hohen Stils, hier kündigt sich ein kommendes Barock, ein tief gotisch aufatmendes Barock von einer Wölbung, einer Spannung an, daß wir vor solcher Vermessenheit zurückschaudern müßten, stünde das ungeheure Wagnis nicht schon in gelassener Vollendung vor uns." Cited Hermann Bahr in: Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Demetrius. Haupt- und Staatsaktion, S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin, 1925. Cf. original cover. Indeed, Lernet’s early dramatic works quickly brought him major recognition: in 1926, at the age of 29, he was awarded the Kleist Prize for the three plays Demetrius, Ollapotrida, and Österreichische Komödie.
This distinction also gave him the opportunity to display the provocative streak that would characterize him throughout his life: in 1930, in response to an alleged plagiarism controversy surrounding another play (Attraktion, co-written with Paul Frank), he publicly and demonstratively renounced the Kleist Prize."Da nehme ich ihn lieber wieder zurück". Komödie um den Kleist-Preis. In: Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten, 12 September 1930. Lernet’s apparent nonchalance about awards reflected a complex relationship to writing, marked by the modesty of an author who, out of reverence for masterpieces of the past, refused to regard contemporary works – including his own – as their equal. This attitude, which manifested itself both socially and literarily, led to him being described by friends and admirers as "the last grand seigneur of Austrian literature".An expression, that Friedrich Torberg 1955 created ("Ein schwieriger Herr", in Alexander Lernet-Holenia. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag des Dichters, Wien / Hamburg, Paul Zsolnay, 1967, p. 17) and which has been taken up again and again ever since.
As far as the theatre was concerned, Lernet’s trajectory led from Expressionism and lyrical drama to comedy and boulevard plays. Ollapotrida (1926) marked his first financial success.Heinz Wittmann: Gespräche mit Dichtern. Österreichische Verlagsanstalt, Wien 1976, pp. 94–95. In the five years that followed, audiences remained loyal to the comedies he wrote, whether alone or in collaboration. Critics were more reserved, but these works provided the author with a solid financial security.Peter Pott: Alexander Lernet-Holenia - Gestalt, dramatisches Werk und Bühnengeschichte. Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagbuchhandlung, Wien / Stuttgart 1972, pp. 148–151.
Shaped by the spirit of lyricism and theatre, the 1920s were also the period in which Lernet formed contacts and friendships that stood in sharp contrast to the deliberate dilettantism he cultivated. Prominent older contemporaries such as Stefan ZweigRichard Strauss, Stefan Zweig: Briefwechsel. Ed.: Willi Schuh. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1957, pp. 170 ff., 155, 146, 144, 142, 112, 116. and Hugo von Hofmannsthal recognized the quality of his works.
From 1927 until the Second World War, Lernet divided his time between Vienna and St. Wolfgang, where, since 1900, his mother had owned a house that she later bequeathed to him.Cf. Alexander Dreihann-Holenia, «Alexander Lernet-Holenia: Herkunft, Kindheit und Jugend», in Thomas Eicher, Bettina Gruber (Eds.), Alexander Lernet-Holenia. Poesie auf dem Boulevard, Köln, Böhlau, 1999, p. 36. In St. Wolfgang, he was a neighbour of Stefan Zweig, who had been living in Salzburg since 1919. In 1928, the two jointly wrote the comedy Gelegenheit macht Liebe under the pseudonym Clemens Neydisser.Cf. Alexander Lernet-Holenia, "Ich wollte, er lebte uns noch!", in Hanns Arens (Ed.): Stefan Zweig. Im Zeugnis seiner Freunde, überarb. und erw. Ausg., München/Wien, Langen-Müller, 1968, p. 84. Their mutual esteem led Zweig to actively support Lernet’s career. He introduced him to the publisher Herbert Reichner, who subsequently published three of Lernet’s works.
An especially close confidant during this period was Carl Zuckmayer, with whom he had been connected since 1926, when Zuckmayer acquired a house in Henndorf near Salzburg. He followed Lernet’s literary development with great attention. In 1939, for example, he wrote to Annemarie Seidel, the wife of Peter Suhrkamp and an editor at the Suhrkamp publishing house, that the novel Ein Traum in Rot had "completely delighted, enchanted, and captivated" him.Gunther Nickel, Erwin Rotermund (Eds.), Carl Zuckmayer – Alexander Lernet-Holenia. Briefwechsel und andere Beiträge zur Zuckmayer-Forschung, Zuckmayer-Jahrbuch, Band 8, Wallstein, 2005/06, p. 22. He emphasized Lernet’s ability to surprise his readers time and again, as well as his "at once sovereign and humble way of handling language.Carl Zuckmayer, «Die Siegel des Dichters», Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag des Dichters, p. 7.