Ingeborg Bachmann (; 25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. She is regarded as one of the major voices of German-language literature in the 20th century. In

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

, she was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

by German philologist Harald Patzer.

Early life and education

Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her father was an early member of the Austrian National Socialist Party. She had a sister, Isolde, and a brother, Heinz. She studied philosophy, psychology, German

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

, and law at the universities of

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

, and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. In 1949, she received her PhD from the University of Vienna with her dissertation titled "The Critical Reception of the Existential Philosophy of

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

"; her thesis adviser was Victor Kraft.

Career

After graduating, Bachmann worked as a scriptwriter and editor at the Allied radio station ''Rot-Weiss-Rot'', a job that enabled her to obtain an overview of contemporary literature and also supplied her with a decent income, making possible proper literary work. Her first

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the liste ...

s were published by the station. Her literary career was enhanced by contact with Hans Weigel (littérateur and sponsor of young post-war literature) and the literary circle known as Gruppe 47, whose members also included Ilse Aichinger, Paul Celan, Heinrich Böll, Marcel Reich-Ranicki and

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...

. In 1953, she moved to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, Italy, where she spent the large part of the following years working on poems, essays and short stories as well as opera libretti in collaboration with

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

, which soon brought with them international fame and numerous awards.

Writings

Bachmann's doctoral dissertation expresses her growing disillusionment with Heideggerian

existentialism Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...

, which was in part resolved through her growing interest in

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

, whose ''

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus The ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' (widely abbreviated and Citation, cited as TLP) is the only book-length philosophical work by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that was published during his lifetime. The project had a broad goal ...

'' significantly influenced her relationship to language. During her lifetime, Bachmann was known mostly for her two collections of poetry, ''Die gestundete Zeit'' (Time Deferred) and ''Anrufung des Grossen Bären'' (Invocation of Ursa Major). Bachmann's literary work focuses on themes like

personal boundaries Personal boundaries or the act of setting boundaries is a Life skills, life skill that has been popularized by self help authors and support groups since the mid-1980s. Personal boundaries are established by changing one's own response to interp ...

, establishment of the truth, and

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

, the latter in the tradition of Wittgenstein. Many of her prose works represent the struggles of women to survive and to find a voice in post-war society. She also addresses the histories of

imperialism Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...

and

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

, in particular, the persistence of imperialist ideas in the present. Fascism was a recurring theme in her writings. In her novel ''Der Fall Franza'' (''The Case of Franza'') Bachmann argued that fascism had not died in 1945 but had survived in the German speaking world of the 1960s in human relations and particularly in men's oppression of women. In Germany the achievements of the

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

campaign at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century had been systematically undone by the fascist

Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

in the 1930s. Bachmann's engagement with fascism followed that of other women writers who in the immediate post-war period dealt with fascism from a woman's perspective, such as Anna Seghers, Ilse Aichinger, Ingeborg Drewitz and

Christa Wolf Christa Wolf (; Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.Vergangenheitsbewältigung'', along with the fear of the continued existence of

National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

within democracy, suffuses Bachmann's oeuvre. In her work for radio, this takes the form of a self-conscious pivoting between the possibility of freedom and the inevitability of imprisonment. Her first radio play ''Ein Geschäft mit Träumen'' (''A Shop for Dreams'') is concerned with the inhumanity of violence and oppression. ''Der gute Gott von Manhattan'' (''The Good God of Manhattan'') consciously echoes

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

's '' The Good Person of Szechwan'', as it tackles the impossibility of Good and Love surviving in capitalist, consumerist societies. In her analysis of Bachmann's radio drama ''Die Zikaden'' (''The Cicadas''), which was written in

Ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Although inhabited since the Bronze Age, as a Ancient G ...

and then

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

towards the end of 1954, and first broadcast on Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) on 25 March 1955, Lucy Jeffery states that

The transitory existence of the exiled or marginalised writer who escapes prejudice, conflict, and dominance is paralleled by the experience of the refugee. The feeling of unsettledness is measured against the desire to find that utopian land away (both geographically and temporally) from suffering. Yet, as Bachmann knows too well, escapism is a temporary heterotopia where guilt and longing cannot be kept at bay.

Similar themes can also be found throughout Bachmann's writings in works such as ''Ein Wildermuth'' (''A Wildermuth''), included in ''Das dreißigste Jahr'' (''The Thirtieth Year: Stories'', published in 1961), '' Malina'' (published in 1971), and ''Kriegstagebuch'' (''War Diary'', published posthumously in 2010). Bachmann was also in the vanguard of Austrian women writers who discovered in their private lives the political realities from which they attempted to achieve emancipation. Bachmann's writings and those of Barbara Frischmuth, Brigitte Schwaiger and Anna Mitgutsch were widely published in Germany. Male Austrian authors such as Franz Innerhofer, Josef Winkler and Peter Turrini wrote equally popular works on traumatic experiences of socialisation. Often these authors produced their works for major German publishing houses. After Bachmann's death in 1973, Austrian writers such as Thomas Bernhard,

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrians, Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has ...

and Elfriede Jelinek continued the tradition of Austrian literature in Germany.

Lectures

Between November 1959 and February 1960 Bachmann gave five lectures on poetics at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

. Known as the ''Frankfurter Vorlesungen: Probleme zeitgenössischer Dichtung'' (''Frankfurt Lectures: Problems of Contemporary Writings'') they are historically and substantively Bachmann's central work. In it she explained recurring themes in her early literary publications and she discussed the function of literature in society. Bachmann insisted that literature had to be viewed in its historic context, thus foreshadowing a rising interest in studying the connection between literary discourse and the contemporary understanding of history. In the first lecture on ''Fragen und Scheinfragen'' (Questions and Pseudo-Questions) Bachmann focused on the role of writers in the post-war society and listed some essential questions that she defines "destructive and frightening in their simplicity". They are: why write? What do we mean by change and why do we want it through art? What are the limitations of the writer who wants to bring about change? According to Karen Achberger

Bachmann views the great literary accomplishments of the twentieth century as expressions in language and poetic form of a moral and intellectual renewal in the individual writers; it is the writer's new thinking and experiencing that forms the core of their literary works, and lets them come closer to a new language. (…) Bachmann stresses the need for a new language inhabited by a new spirit. (…) She also associates literary renewal with writers on the verge of silence due to self-doubt and despair over the impotence of language and she cites in this context Hofmannsthal's '' Ein Brief'' (1902) … as the first articulation of this dilemma.

In the second lecture, ''Über Gedichte'' (On Poetry), she distinguished poetry with its new power to grasp reality in its language, from other genres such as novels and plays. With reference to Günter Eich and Stefan George she identified a new generation of "poet-prophets" whose mission consisted in leading the world to the discovery of an "ever purer heaven of art" (George). Bachmann set these poets apart from the Surrealists who aspired to violence and the Futurists who claimed that "war is beautiful". She argued that these two movements exemplified ''

art for art's sake Art for art's sake—the usual English rendering of (), a French slogan from the latter half of the 19th century—is a phrase that expresses the philosophy that 'true' art is utterly independent of all social values and utilitarian functions, b ...

'' and that the careers of Gottfried Benn and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

exemplified the "easy friendship between pure aestheticism with political barbarism" (Achberger). She referenced Kafka on the need (with his words) to "take the axe to the frozen sea in us" and refuse to remain indifferent to the injustices that are perpetrated before our eyes. In the lecture she also named writings of

Nelly Sachs Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German–Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazism, Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearn ...

, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Paul Celan as examples of his concept of new poetry. In the third lecture, on ''Das schreibende Ich'' (The writing ''I''), Bachmann addressed the question of the first-person narrator. She was concerned with the "accountability and authority, the authenticity and reliability, of the person in the position of narrating the work" (Achberger). She distinguished between the unproblematic "I" in letters and diaries, which conceals the person from the author, and the unproblematic "I" in memoirs, in which a "'naive' handling of the first person is requested (Achberger). She argued that Henry Miller and Céline placed "themselves and their personal experience directly at the centre of their novels" (Achberger). She referenced Tolstoy's '' The Kreutzer Sonata'' and Dostoyevsky's '' The House of Dead'' as first-person narrators of the inner story. She also argued that narrators could provide a new treatment of time (for example

Italo Svevo Aron Hector Schmitz (19 December 186113 September 1928), better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo (), was an Italian and Austro-Hungarian writer, businessman, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. A close friend of Irish novelist and ...

), of material (for example

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...

) or of space (for example Hans Henny Jahnn). According to Bachmann, in the modern novel the "I" had "shifted: the narrator no longer lives in the story, but rather, the story lives inside the narrator" (Achberger). In the fourth lecture, ''Der Umgang mit Namen'' (The close association with names), Bachmann explored how names could have a life of their own. She discussed the use of names in contemporary literature. She identified "denied names" such as in Kafka's '' The Castle'', "ironic naming" by

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

, "name games" in Joyce's '' Ulysses'' and instances where the identity of the character is not secured by a name but by the context, such as in Faulkner's '' The Sound and the Fury''. Klagenfurt - Musilhaus - Ingeborg Bachmann

Klagenfurt - Musilhaus - Ingeborg Bachmann

In the fifth lecture on ''Literatur als Utopie'' (Literature as Utopia), she turned to the question of what makes literature

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', which describes a fictional island soci ...

. She argued that it was the process that was set in motion in the writer and reader, as a result of their interaction with literature, which made a work utopian. She argued that literature could make us aware of a lack, both in the work and in our own world. Readers could remove this lack by giving the work a chance in our time. Thus she argued that each work of literature is "a realm which reaches forward and has unknown limits". Bachmann's understanding of utopia as a direction rather than a goal, and her argument that it was the function of literature to take an utopian direction, stemmed from

Robert Musil Robert Musil (; 6 November 1880 – 15 April 1942) was an Austrian philosophical writer. His unfinished novel, ''The Man Without Qualities'' (), is generally considered to be one of the most important and influential modernist novels. Family M ...

, who had analysed European modernism in his 1908 dissertation on

Ernst Mach Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( ; ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or object to that of ...

, ''Beitrag zur Beurteilung der Lehren Machs'' (Contribution to the assessment of Mach's theories.

Later life and death

During her later years she suffered from alcoholism and from an addiction to medication (

barbiturate Barbiturates are a class of depressant, depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medication, medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological a ...

s and

benzodiazepine Benzodiazepines (BZD, BDZ, BZs), colloquially known as "benzos", are a class of central nervous system (CNS) depressant, depressant drugs whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. They are prescribed t ...

) prescribed by her doctor. A friend described it:

"I was deeply shocked by the magnitude of her tablet addiction. It must have been 100 per day, the bin was full of empty boxes. She looked bad, she was waxlike and pale. And her whole body was covered in bruises. I wondered what could have caused them. Then, when I saw how she slipped her Gauloise that she smoked and let it burn off on her arm, I realized: burns caused by falling cigarettes. The numerous tablets had made her body insensible to pain."

On the night of 25 September 1973, her nightgown caught fire and she was taken to the Sant'Eugenio Hospital at 7:05 A.M. the following morning for treatment of second and third degree burns. Local police concluded that the fire was caused by a cigarette. During her stay, she experienced withdrawal symptoms from

substance abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definition ...

, though the doctors treating her were not aware of the cause. This may have contributed to her subsequent death on 17 October 1973.

Legacy

Although German language writers such as Hilde Domin, Luise Rinser and

had published notable works on women's issues in the post-war period, it was only in the 1970s that a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

movement emerged in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. After her death, Bachmann became popular among feminist readers. Feminist scholars' engagement with her work after her death led to a wave of scholarship that also drew attention to her prose work. Her works gained popularity within the emerging ''Frauenliteratur'' (''women's literature'') movement which struggled to find the authentic female voice. New publishing houses carried the movement, such as the feminist press ''Frauenoffensive'' (''Women's Offensive''), which published writings by Verena Stefan. In 2021, her childhood home on Henselstraße in Klagenfurt was purchased by the state of

, to be turned into a museum dedicated to her.

Awards and recognition

Source: *1953: Prize of Group 47, for her poetry collection ''Die gestundete Zeit''. *1957: Literaturpreis der Stadt Bremen (ex aequo with Gerd Oelschlegel). *1959: Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden. *1964: Georg Büchner Prize. *1968: Grosser Osterreichischer Staatspreis. *1972: Anton Wildgans Prize.

The Ingeborg Bachmann Prize

The Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, awarded annually in Klagenfurt since 1977, is named after her.

In film

'' The Dreamed Ones'' (''Die Geträumten''; 2016), is a feature film based on the almost 20-year correspondence between Bachmann and poet Paul Celan. It was directed by Ruth Beckermann and won the SCAM International Award at Cinéma du Réel 2016. A biographical film, '' Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the Desert'', starring Vicky Krieps as Bachmann and directed by

Margarethe von Trotta Margarethe von Trotta (; born 21 February 1942)Hans Helmut Prinzler, ''Chronik des deutschen Films, 1895–1994'' (Stuttgart and Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 1995), p. 149. is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been ref ...

, premiered at 73rd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2023, and gets a cinema release on 26 October 2023. The film focuses on her relationship with

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity (social science), identity, individuality, Moral responsibility, responsibility, morality, and political commi ...

and the impact it had on her life. It also depicts her friends, composer

, and writer Adolf Opel, with whom she travelled to Egypt to experience the desert.

Personal life

From 1945 to 1946, Bachmann fell in love with a former member of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, the Viennese Jew Jack Hamesh. In May 1948 she began in Vienna a love affair with the poet and Holocaust survivor Paul Celan. In 1955 she met the political scientist

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...

; even though he was married and had two children, the two had a romantic relationship that lasted several years. From 1958 to 1963, she lived on and off with Swiss playwright

. Her 1971 novel, '' Malina'', has been described as a response, at least partially, to his 1964 novel '' Mein Name sei Gantenbein''. She never married nor had children.

Works

Poetry collections

* 1953: ''Die gestundete Zeit.'' * 1956: ''Anrufung des Grossen Bären.'' * 2000: ''Ich weiß keine bessere Welt.'' (Unpublished Poems) * 2006: ''Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann.'' translator Peter Filkins, Zephyr Press, .

Radio plays

* 1952: ''Ein Geschäft mit Träumen.'' * 1955: ''Die Zikaden.'' * 1959: ''Der gute Gott von Manhattan'' (won the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden in 1959). * 2011: ''Die Radiofamilie''. ** ''The Radio Family'', translated by Mike Mitchell (2014). ISBN 9780857421913.

Libretti

* 1960: '' Der Prinz von Homburg.'' * 1965: '' Der junge Lord.''

Collections of short stories

*''Das dreißigste Jahr'' (1961). **''The Thirtieth Year'', translated by Michael Bullock (1964). *''Simultan'' (1972). **''Three Paths to the Lake'', translated by Mary Fran Gilbert (1989). The eponymous short story in this collection was adapted as a film by

Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, Ge ...

in 1976.

Novel

*'' Malina'' (1971). **''Malina.'' Translated by Philip Boehm (1990; revised 2019). ISBN 9780241366240.

Unfinished novels

* ''Der Fall Franza / Requiem für Fanny Goldmann'' (Piper, 1979). ** ''The Book of Franza and Requiem for Fanny Goldmann'', translated by Peter Filkins (Evanstons: Northwestern University Press, 2010). ISBN 978-0810127548. * ''"Todesarten"-Projekt'' (Piper, 1995). Compiles: **''Todesarten, Ein Ort für Zufalle, Wüstenbuch, Requiem für Fanny Goldmann, Goldmann/Rottwitz-Roman und andere Texte'' ** ''Das Buch Franza'' ** ''Malina (2 v. )'' ** ''Der "Simultan"-Band und andere späte Erzählungen.'' *''Das Buch Goldmann'', ed. by Marie Luise Wandruszka (Munich; Berlin: Piper; Suhrkamp, 2022). ISBN 978-3518426012. *''Das Honditschkreuz'' **''The Honditsch Cross'', translated by Tess Lewis (New Directions, forthcoming)

Essays, public speeches and interviews

* 1959: ''Die Wahrheit ist dem Menschen zumutbar'' (poetological speech at a German presentation of awards). *1955: ''Frankfurter Vorlesungen'' (lecture on problems of contemporary literature). **''The Critical Writings of Ingeborg Bachmann'', ed. and trans. by Karen R. Achberger and Karl Ivan Solibakke (Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House 2021). ISBN 9781571139443. *1983 nterviews from 1953–1973 ''Wir müssen wahre Sätze finden. Gespräche und Interviews'', ed. by Christine Koschel and Inge von Weidenbaum (Munich: Piper, 1983). ISBN 9783492027243.

Letters

* * ** * ** * ** * *

Doctoral Dissertation

References

* Hartwig, Ina: ''Wer war Ingeborg Bachmann? Eine Biographie in Bruchstücken.'' S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2017,

External links

*
Ingeborg Bachmann
at Lyrikline – includes some translations of her poems into Dutch and Turkish * * Includes "The drugs, the words" ("Die Drogen, die Worte") and "The bridges" (Die Brücken), translated into English by Peter Elkin
Sound recordings with Ingeborg Bachmann
in the Online Archive of the Österreichische Mediathek (Literary readings, interviews and radio reports) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bachmann, Ingeborg 1926 births 1973 deaths Austrian philosophers of language Austrian women poets Writers from Klagenfurt Anton Wildgans Prize winners Georg Büchner Prize winners Austrian women philosophers 20th-century Austrian philosophers Austrian women essayists 20th-century Austrian women writers 20th-century Austrian poets German-language poets 20th-century Austrian essayists Austrian opera librettists Women librettists Members of the German Academy for Language and Literature