Sacher-Masoch, Leopold Ritter von auch Charlotte Arand, Zoe von Rodenbach#

Sacher-Masoch, Leopold, Ritter* von (also Charlotte Arand, Zoe von Rodenbach), b. Lvív, Ukraine (then Lemberg), Jan. 27, 1836, d. Lindheim near Frankfurt am Main (Germany), March 9, 1895, narrative writer, playwright, feature writer, essayist; uncle of Artur Wolfgang von Sacher-Masoch. Son of the head of police in Lemberg; 1848 moved to Prague. Studied law, mathematics and history in Prague and Graz; from 1860 professor of history at the University of Lemberg, then free-lance writer. 1873 married A. A. von Ruemelin, who successfully wrote under the pseudonym of "Wanda von Dunajew". Versatile writer of realistic novels and stories on his native Galicia ("Don Juan von Kolomea", 1866; "Galizische Geschichten", 1875; "Judengeschichten", 1878). Severely criticised for his pan-Slavic and philosemitic tendencies but in particular for the repeated diffuse presentation of the sexual deviation described in his famous novella "Venus im Pelz" (1870) and in the novel "Die geschiedene Frau" (2 vols., 1870) and for which in 1886 the Viennese neurologist R. von Krafft-Ebing coined the expression "masochism".

Editions: Venus im Pelz. Mit einer Studie ueber den Masochismus von G. Deleuze, 1980; Lola, ed. by M. Farin, 1985; Mondnacht. Geschichten aus Galizien, ed. by E. Schmalzriedt, 1988; Der Judenraphael, ed. by A. Opel, 1989.

Literature#