Georg Trakl (3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian

Expressionists Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

. He is perhaps best known for his poem " Grodek", which he wrote shortly before he died of a

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Am ...

overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

Life and work

Trakl was born and lived the first 21 years of his life in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

. His father, Tobias Trakl (11 June 1837, Ödenburg/

Sopron Sopron (; german: Ödenburg, ; sl, Šopron) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő. History Ancient times-13th century When the area that is today Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire, a ...

– 1910), was a dealer of hardware from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, while his mother, Maria Catharina Halik (17 May 1852,

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...

– 1925), was a housewife of partly Czech descent; she was a drug addict and left the education to a French "gouvernante", who brought Trakl into contact with French language and literature at an early age. His sister Grete Trakl was a musical prodigy; with her he shared artistic endeavors. Poems allude to an incestuous relationship between the two. Trakl attended a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

elementary school, although his parents were

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

s. He matriculated in 1897 at the Salzburg Staatsgymnasium, where he had problems in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, and mathematics, for which he had to repeat one year and then leave without

Matura or its translated terms (''Mature'', ''Matur'', , , , , , ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, C ...

. At age 13, Trakl began to write poetry. After quitting high school, Trakl worked for a pharmacist for three years and decided to adopt pharmacy as a career; this facilitated access to drugs, such as morphine and cocaine. It was during this time that he experimented with

playwriting A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, but his two short plays, ''All Souls' Day'' and ''Fata Morgana'', were not successful. However, from May to December 1906, Trakl published four prose pieces in the ''

feuilleton A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of french: feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art critici ...

'' section of two Salzburg newspapers. All cover themes and settings found in his mature work. This is especially true of "Traumland" (Dreamland), in which a young man falls in love with a dying girl who is his cousin. In 1908, Trakl moved 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 pharmacy, and became acquainted with some local artists who helped him publish some of his poems. Trakl's father died in 1910, soon before Trakl received his pharmacy certificate; thereafter, Trakl enlisted in the army for a year-long stint. His return to civilian life in Salzburg was unsuccessful and he re-enlisted, serving as a pharmacist at a hospital in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...

. There he became acquainted with a group of avant-garde artists involved with the well-regarded literary journal ''Der Brenner'', a journal that began the Kierkegaard revival in the German-speaking countries. Ludwig von Ficker, the editor of ''Der Brenner'' (and son of the historian Julius von Ficker), became his patron; he regularly printed Trakl's work and endeavored to find him a publisher to produce a collection of poems. The result of these efforts was ''Gedichte'' ''(Poems)'', published by Kurt Wolff in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

during the summer of 1913. Ficker also brought Trakl to the attention of

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian- British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consi ...

, who anonymously provided him with a sizable stipend so that he could concentrate on his writing. At the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Trakl served in the

Austro-Hungarian Army The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...

and was sent as a

medical officer A physician (American English), medical practitioner ( Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

to attend soldiers on the Eastern Front. Trakl suffered frequent bouts of depression. On one such occasion during the Battle of Gródek (fought in autumn 1914 at Gródek, then in the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...

), Trakl had to steward the recovery of some ninety soldiers wounded in the fierce campaign against the Russians. He tried to shoot himself from the strain, but his comrades prevented him. Hospitalized at a military hospital in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

and observed closely, Trakl lapsed into worse depression and wrote to Ficker for advice. Ficker convinced him to communicate with Wittgenstein. Upon receiving Trakl's note, Wittgenstein travelled to the hospital, but found that Trakl had died of a cocaine overdose. Trakl was buried at Kraków's Rakowicki Cemetery on 6 November 1914, but on 7 October 1925, as a result of the efforts by Ficker, his remains were transferred to the municipal cemetery of

Mühlau Mühlau is a municipality in the district of Muri in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History The earliest evidence of human settlement in Mühlau is the remains of a Roman villa. The modern municipality of Mühlau is first mentioned in ...

(where they now repose next to Ficker's).

Themes and motifs

While Trakl's very earliest poems are more philosophical and do not deal as much with the real world, most of his poems are either set in the evening or have evening as a motif. Silence is also a frequent motif in Trakl's poetry, and his later poems often feature the silent dead, who are unable to express themselves.

Bibliography

;Selected titles: * ''Gedichte'' (''Poems''), 1913 * ''Sebastian im Traum'' (''Sebastian in the Dream''), 1915 * ''Der Herbst des Einsamen'' (''The Autumn of The Lonely One''), 1920 * ''Gesang des Abgeschiedenen'' (''Song of the Departed''), 1933 ;Literary works in English: * ''Decline: 12 Poems'', trans. Michael Hamburger, Guido Morris / Latin Press, 1952 * ''Twenty Poems of George Trakl'', trans. James Wright & Robert Bly, The Sixties Press, 1961 * ''Selected Poems'', ed.

Christopher Middleton Christopher Middleton may refer to: * Christopher Middleton (d. 1628) (1560–1628), English translator and poet *Christopher Middleton (poet) (1926–2015), British poet *Christopher Middleton (navigator) (1770), Royal Navy officer and navigator ...

, trans. Robert Grenier ''et al.'', Jonathan Cape, 1968 * ''Georg Trakl: Poems'', trans. Lucia Getsi, Mundus Artium Press, 1973 * ''Georg Trakl: A Profile'', ed. Frank Graziano, Logbridge-Rhodes, 1983 * ''Song of the West: Selected Poems'', trans. Robert Firmage, North Point Press, 1988 * ''The Golden Goblet: Selected Poems of Georg Trakl, 1887–1914'', trans. Jamshid Shirani & A. Maziar, Ibex Publishers, 1994 * ''Autumn Sonata: Selected Poems of Georg Trakl'', trans. Daniel Simko, Asphodel Press, 1998 * ''Poems and Prose, Bilingual edition'', trans. Alexander Stillmark, Libris, 2001 ** Re-edition: ''Poems and Prose. A Bilingual Edition'', Northwestern University Press, 2005 * ''To the Silenced: Selected Poems'', trans. Will Stone,

Arc Publications Arc Publications, also known as Arc, is an independent publishing house in the UK, publishing contemporary poetry from new and established writers from the UK and abroad, specialising in the work of international poets writing in English and the ...

, 2006 * ''In an Abandoned Room: Selected Poems by Georg Trakl'', trans.

Daniele Pantano Daniele Pantano (born February 10, 1976) is a poet, essayist, literary translator, artist, editor, and scholar. He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, of Sicilian and German parentage. Pantano holds degrees in philosophy, literature, and crea ...

, Erbacce Press, 2008 * ''The Last Gold of Expired Stars: Complete Poems 1908 - 1914'', trans. Jim Doss & Werner Schmitt, Loch Raven Press, 2011 * ''Song of the Departed: Selected Poems of George Trakl'', trans. Robert Firmage,

Copper Canyon Press Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, founded in 1972 specializing exclusively in the publication of poetry. It is located in Port Townsend, Washington. Copper Canyon Press publishes new collections of poetry by both ...

, 2012 *
Uncommon Poems and Versions by Georg Trakl", trans. James Reidel, Mudlark No. 53, 2014
* ''Poems'', trans. James Reidel, Seagull Books, 2015 * ''Sebastian Dreaming'', trans. James Reidel, Seagull Books, 2016 * ''A Skeleton Plays Violin'', trans. James Reidel, Seagull Books, 2017 * ''Autumnal Elegies: Complete Poetry'', trans. Michael Jarvie, 2019 *''Surrender to Night: The Collected Poems'' ''of Georg Trakl'', trans. Will Stone, Pushkin Collection 2019 *''Collected Poems'', trans. James Reidel, Seagull Books 2019 ;Critical studies: * Richard Millington, ''Snow from Broken Eyes: Cocaine in the Lives and Works of Three Expressionist Poets'', Peter Lang AG, 2012 * Richard Millington, ''The Gentle Apocalypse: Truth and Meaning in the Poetry of Georg Trakl'', Camden House, 2020 * Hans Joachim Schliep, ''on the Table Bread and wine- poetry and Religion in the works of Georg Trakl'', Lambert Academic Publishing (LAP), 2020,

Poetry of Trakl in music

* Experimental black metal artist Jute Gyte uses the entirety of Trakl’s “Helian” on the (2021) album with the same name * The band Dead Eyed Sleeper uses Trakl's poem ''Menschheit'' as lyrics to the song of the same name, on the 2016 album
Gomorrh
'. *Paul Hindemith: Die Junge Magd - Sechs Gedichte von Georg Trakl für eine Altstimme mit Flöte, Klarinette und Streichquartett, opus 23 Nr.2 * ''6 Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl, Op. 14'' by

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stead ...

. * Peter Maxwell Davies: ''Revelation and Fall'', Monodrama for soprano and instrumental ensemble, 1966. * Wilhelm Killmayer set several of his poems in two song cycles, ' in 1993 and ' in 1996. *

Heinz Winbeck Heinz Winbeck (11 February 1946 – 26 March 2019) was a German composer, conductor and academic teacher. He is known for five large-scale symphonies, which he programmatically subtitled, such as " Tu Solus" and " De Profundis". As a composition ...

: Symphony No. 3 ''Grodek'' for alto, speaker, and orchestra (1988) * ''

Sebastian im Traum ''Sebastian im Traum'' (''The Dream of Sebastian'') is an orchestral composition by the German composer Hans Werner Henze. Based on the poem of the same name by Georg Trakl, it is a fifteen-minute composition for large orchestra. Composed in 2004 ...

'', 2004 orchestral composition by

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

based on Trakl's work. * Russian composer

David Tukhmanov David Fyodorovich Tukhmanov PAR (russian: Дави́д Фёдорович Тухма́нов, was born on July 20, 1940, in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Soviet and Russian composer. People's Artist of Russia (2000), State Prize of R ...

wrote a triptych for mezzo-soprano and piano titled ''Dream of Sebastian, or Saint Night'', which is based on the poems of Trakl. The first performance took place in 2007. *''Kristalliner Schrei'', a 2014 setting of three poems from ''Gedichte'' for mezzo-soprano and string quartet, by Henry Breneman Stewart * ''Trakl Gedichte'' by Philippe Manoury published by Éditions Durand * ''Wild Winter: Lament V'' by Thea Musgrave

Poetry of Trakl in dance

* "Silence Spoken: ...quiet answers to dark questions", an intersemiotic translation of five poems by Trakl into dance, choreographed by Angela Kaiser, 2015.

Movies related to Georg Trakl

* Tabu - Es ist die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden (31 May 2012)

References

External links

* Photos of the graves of Ludwig von Ficker (left) and Georg Trakl (right) at the cemetery of Innsbruck-Mühlau
Photo 1

Photo 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trakl, Georg 1887 births 1914 suicides Writers from Salzburg 20th-century Austrian poets Austro-Hungarian poets Austro-Hungarian writers Austrian male poets Austrian World War I poets Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Expressionist poets German-language poets Modernist poets Drug-related suicides in Poland Austrian people of Hungarian descent Austrian people of Czech descent 20th-century Austrian male writers Austro-Hungarian Army officers Military personnel who committed suicide 1914 deaths