!!!Rilke, Rainer Maria

Rilke, Rainer Maria, b. Prague (Czech Republic), Dec. 4, 1875, 
d. Val-Mont near Montreux (Switzerland), Dec. 29, 1926, poet of world 
renown, prose writer, essayist. Grew up in Prague, 1886-1891 attended 
the military schools of St. Poelten and Maehrisch-Weisskirchen 
and 1891/92 the commercial college in Linz;  studied art history and 
literary history as well as law in Prague, Munich and Berlin; a 
meeting with Lou Andreas-Salome in 1897 made him decide to take up 
writing as a profession.

\\
1900 joined Worpswede, the group of German artists, and 1901 married 
sculptor Clara Westhoff. After the dissolution of the marriage (1902 
birth of daughter Ruth) moved to Paris in 1902 and became private 
secretary to the sculptor A. Rodin in Meudon in 1906/07. His break 
with Rodin was followed by more years of travel; in between lived at 
Duino Castle near Trieste as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn and 
Taxis, his most important patron. Wrote the first Duino Elegies there 
(finished in 1922 and published in 1923).

\\
During World War I R. was for a short time active in the Austrian 
Landsturm (home reserves) and in the Vienna war archives, he then went 
to Munich and to Switzerland, where he found a new home at the small 
castle of Muzot in the Wallis. Died of leukaemia in Val-Mont 
sanatorium, his burial place is Raron cemetery in the Rhône 
valley.

\\
R. was the most influential German-language poet in the first half of 
the 20th century. His early collections of poems "Das Buch der Bilder" 
(1902) and "Das Stunden-Buch" (1905) already displayed a suggestive 
rhythmic and pictorial language. The literary tendencies present at 
the turn of the century are noticeable in his texts. His novella "Die 
Weise von Liebe and Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke" (1906) became one 
of the most successful German-language books ever.

\\
His novel "Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge" (1910) is 
characterised by images of misery and desolation. It is regarded as 
one of the first Modernist German-language novels and, for the author, 
marked a watershed to his main body of poetry, the 10 Duino Elegies. 
In these cantos, rhymeless and written in free rhythm, Rilke left 
impressionism behind. Until 1945 his influence on contemporary poetry 
was exceptionally strong; his artistic language and poetic form remain 
unequalled by his many imitators.

!Further works
poetry: Leben und Lieder, 1894; Larenopfer, 1896; 
Wegwarten, 1896; Traumgekroent, 1897; Advent, 1898; Mit zur Feier, 
1898; Neue Gedichte, 1907; Der Neuen Gedichte anderer Teil, 1908; 
Requiem, 1909; Die fruehen Gedichte, 1909; Erste Gedichte, 1913; Das 
Marien-Leben, 1913; Sonette an Orpheus, 1923; Spaete Gedichte, 1934. - 
Prose: Am Leben hin, 1898; Zwei Prager Geschichten, 1899; Vom lieben 
Gott und anderes, 1900 (1904 under the title of "Geschichten vom 
lieben Gott"); Die Letzten, 1902; Worpswede, 1903; A. Rodin, 1903; 
Erzaehlungen und Skizzen aus der Fruehzeit, 1928; Verse und Prosa aus 
dem Nachlass, 1929. - Dramas: Jetzt und in der Stunde unseres 
Absterbens, 1896; Im Fruehfrost, 1897; Ohne Gegenwart, 1898; Die 
weisse Fuerstin, 1900; Das taegliche Leben, 1902. - Letters, diaries: 
Briefe an A. Rodin, 1928; Gesammelte Briefe, 6 vols., 1936-1939; 
Tagebuecher aus der Fruehzeit, 1942; Briefe, 2 vols., 1950; 
Briefwechsel in Gedichten mit E. Mitterer, 1950; Letters to: M. v. 
Thurn u. Taxis, 1951; L. Andreas-Salome, 1952; A. Gide, 1952; K. 
Kippenberg, 1954; M. Zwetajewa and B. Pasternak, 1983. - Edition: 
Saemtl. Werke, 6 vols., ed. by R.-Archiv in Weimar, 1955-1966 
(critical edition).

!Literature
K. Klutz, R.-Bibliographie, 1975ff., in: Blaetter der 
R.-Ges., 1978ff.; O. H. Olzien, R. M. R. Wirklichkeit 
und Sprache, 1984; D. A. Prater, Ein klingendes Glas. Das Leben 
R. M. R., 1986; H. Herzmann and H. Ridley (eds.), R. und der 
Wandel in der Sensibilitaet, 1990; H. Naumann, R. M. R. Stufen 
seines Werkes, 1995; I. Schnack, R. M. R. Chronik seines 
Lebens und seines Werks, %%sup 2/%1996; P. Demetz (ed.), R. - ein 
europaeischer Dichter aus Prag, 1998.



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