Wildgans, Anton

▪ Austrian dramatist and poet

born April 17, 1881, Vienna, Austria

died May 3, 1932, Mödling, near Vienna

      Austrian dramatist and poet known for his mystical dramas charged with the symbolic messages typical of German Expressionism.

      The son of a judge, Wildgans became a lawyer but soon turned to writing. His childhood had been marred by his relations with his stepmother. His early poems, among which was the collection Herbstfrühling (1909; “Autumn-Spring”), sold well; they recall the themes of idealism and reality in the late romantic works of Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Wildgans' plays, such as the trilogy Armut (1914; “Poverty”), Liebe (1916; “Love”), and Dies irae (1918), begin in a realistic world that becomes less and less comprehensible and more and more concerned with feeling as the play goes on, culminating in a mystical, symbolic sensing of truth. As a counterpart to this trilogy of Viennese middle-class family life, he planned another of a mythological or religious character; only the first part, Kain (1920; “Cain”), was published. Wildgans directed the celebrated Vienna Burgtheater in 1921–22 and 1930–31. He also translated Italian and French poets into German. His own collected poems were published in 1929.

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