Max Mell (1882–1971) was an Austrian

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

. He wrote plays, novels and screenplays. He was born in Maribor, then part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

but now in

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. He studied at Vienna University, and served in the Austrian military during World War I. In 1914 he won the

Bauernfeld Prize The Bauernfeld Prize or Bauernfeld-Preis was a literary prize that was awarded between 1894 and 1921 in memory of Eduard von Bauernfeld. Laureates *1899 Arthur Schnitzler *1901 Marie Eugenie Delle Grazie *1902 Stephan von Millenkovich and *1903 ...

, and in 1929 he was awarded the Franz Grillparzer Prize. Culturally conservative, in 1951 he tried to counter what he regarded as

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

distortions of the epic ''

Nibelungenlied The ( gmh, Der Nibelunge liet or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germani ...

'' with a more faithful reading of the original text.McConnell p.136 In 1959 he was given the

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (german: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian ...

References

Bibliography

* Winder McConnell. ''A Companion to the Nibelungenlied''. Camden House, 1998.

External links

* 1882 births 1971 deaths Writers from Maribor Austrian male dramatists and playwrights Austrian male novelists 20th-century Austrian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Austrian novelists 20th-century Austrian male writers 20th-century Austrian screenwriters {{Austria-writer-stub