František Gellner (19 June 1881 – disappeared September 1914) was a Czech poet, short story writer, artist and

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

Biography

František Gellner was born to a poor

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav (; german: Jungbunzlau) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 42,000 inhabitants. Mladá Boleslav is the second most populated city in the region and a major centre of the Czech automotive ind ...

(''Jungbunzlau''),

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

. His father was a seller and a keen

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

.''Lexikon české literatury'', vol.I, Academia, Praha 2000, pp.795–797, and ''Slovník českých spisovatelů'', Československý spisovatel, Praha 1964, p.11

His student room above his father's shop was the place of his first writing attempts – he covered the walls with his provocative poems and caricatures. He studied at the gymnasium (school), gymnasium in Mladá Boleslav where he contributed to the student journals ''Lípa'', ''Lucerna'', ''Pêle-Mêle'' and ''Mládí'' with poems, translations and drawings. He went to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to study at the Polytechnic Institute, but left after two years with just one exam in drawing. Gellner's

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

lifestyle brought him to the anarchist movement. His flat was searched several times by police.Mgr. Václav Trantina: ''František Gellner – student Báňské akademie v Příbrami, spisovatel a básník''; Hornické muzeum Příbra

He wrote to ''Nový kult'' journal. In 1901 he started studying at the Mining Academy in

Příbram Příbram (; german: Freiberg in Böhmen, ''Przibram'', or ''Pribram'', in 1939–1945 ''Pibrans'') is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. It is well known for its mining history, and more ...

and often went to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

to join anarchist parties with S.K. Neumann, Karel Toman,

Fráňa Šrámek Fráňa Šrámek (January 19, 1877, Sobotka – July 1, 1952, Prague) was a Czech anarchist, impressionist, and vitalist poet, novelist, and playwright. In 1885 his family relocated to Písek, where he lived for a long time and much of his work ...

and

Marie Majerová Marie Majerová (1 February 1882 – 16 January 1967) was a Czech writer and translator. Biography The daughter of working-class parents, she was born in Úvaly and grew up in Kladno. When she was sixteen, she began working as a servant in Bu ...

. He started compulsory military service in 1904 but dropped out after a year. He went to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

to study painting in 1905 and a year later to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

where he drew caricatures for such journals as ''Rire'', ''Cri de Paris'', and ''Le temps nouveau''. In 1908 he returned to

(his father was ill) and in 1909 went to

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and again to Paris. In 1911 he settled in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

and started to work for '' Lidové noviny'' as a caricaturist and a reporter. At the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Gellner was recruited to the Austro-Hungarian army and went to Galicia. The last report about him was that he was relaxing on a path between Zamość and Tomaszów. On September 13, 1914 he was reported missing and never found.Lexikon české literatury, vol.I, Academia, Praha 2000, pp.795–797, and Slovník českých spisovatelů, Československý spisovatel, Praha 1964, p.112.

Poetry

His first poems are full of irony in

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

's style. His poem ''Patnáct lahví koňaku'' (Fifteen bottles of cognac) which he wrote at the age of 15 was published in ''Švanda dudák'' journal (edited by

Ignát Herrmann Ignát Herrmann (12 August 1854 in Chotěboř – 8 July 1935 in Řevnice) was a Czech novelist, satirist and editor. He sometimes used the pseudonym ''Vojta Machatý, Švanda''. The thirteenth child of a solicitor's copyist, he attended schoo ...

).''Český rozhlas 85'

In 1901 he published his first collection called ''Po nás ať přijde potopa!'' (After Us Let the Floods Come!) in which he used especially sexual motifs without any embellishments. The next collection ''Radosti života'' (Joys of Life) shifted the point of view from subject to object and throws the disbelief more on society. The rhythm of the poems is close to

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

verses or chansons. ''Nové verše'' (New Verses, published posthumously in 1919) are not so pathetic as if seen from a distance with a lot of nonchalance. He also wrote satirical poems in Karel Havlíček Borovský's style which were published mostly in papers and journals. He also illustrated Havlíček's ''Křest sv. Vladimíra''. One of his best-known poems was published in ''Po nás ať přijde potopa'' (1901): Another piece from the book ''Básně z pozůstalosti'' that is typical for Gellner's Bohemian lifestyle begins with this strophe:

References

External links

Works by František Gellner available online at the catalogue of the Municipal Library in Prague
(in Czech; no registration needed). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gellner, Frantisek 1881 births 1910s missing person cases 19th-century Czech writers Anarchist writers Austro-Hungarian Jews Czech anarchists Czech caricaturists Czech expatriates in Austria Czech Jews Czech-language writers Czech poets Jewish anarchists Jewish poets Czech male poets Missing person cases in Europe People from Mladá Boleslav TU Wien alumni Year of death unknown Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I

Biography

Poetry

See also

References

External links