Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (; 27 January 1836 – 9 March 1895) was an Austrian nobleman, writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life. The term ''

masochism Sadism () and masochism (), known collectively as sadomasochism ( ) or S&M, is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. The term is named after the Marquis de Sade, a French author known ...

'' is derived from his name, invented by his contemporary, the Austrian psychiatrist

Richard von Krafft-Ebing Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (full name Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing; 14 August 1840 – 22 December 1902) was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work '' Psychopath ...

. Masoch did not approve of this use of his name. During his lifetime, Sacher-Masoch was well known as a

man of letters An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the world of culture, either ...

, in particular a

utopia 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 (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

n thinker who espoused

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. Most of his works remain untranslated into English.

Biography

Early life and education

Von Sacher-Masoch was born in the city of

Lemberg Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, the capital of the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia in Eastern Europe. The Cr ...

(now

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), at the time a province of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

, into the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

family. His parents were an Austrian civil servant, Leopold Johann Nepomuk

Ritter Ritter (German for "knight") is a designation used as a title of nobility in German-speaking areas. Traditionally it denotes the second-lowest rank within the nobility, standing above " Edler" and below "" (Baron). As with most titles and desig ...

von Sacher, and Charlotte Josepha von Masoch, a Ukrainian noblewoman. The father later combined his surname with his wife's ''von Masoch'', at the request of her family (she was the last of the line). Von Sacher served as a Commissioner of the Imperial Police Forces in Lemberg, and he was recognised with a new title of

Austrian nobility The Austrian nobility () is a status group that was officially abolished in 1919 after the fall of Austria-Hungary. Austria's system of nobility was very similar to that of Germany (see German nobility), as both countries were previously part of ...

as Sacher-Masoch awarded by the

Austrian Emperor The emperor of Austria (, ) was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The hereditary imperial title and office was proclaimed in 1804 by Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorra ...

. Leopold studied law, history and mathematics at

Graz University The University of Graz (, formerly: ''Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz'') is a public university, public research university located in Graz, Austria. It is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-old ...

(where he obtained a doctorate in history in 1856), and after graduating he became a lecturer there.

Galician storyteller

His early, non-fictional publications dealt mostly with Austrian history. At the same time, Masoch turned to the folklore and culture of his homeland, Galicia. Soon he abandoned lecturing and became a free man of letters. Within a decade his short stories and novels prevailed over his historical

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

works, though historical themes continued to imbue his fiction. Panslavist ideas were prevalent in Masoch's literary work, and he found a particular interest in depicting picturesque types among the various ethnicities that inhabited Galicia. From the 1860s to the 1880s he published a number of volumes of ''Jewish Short Stories'', ''Polish Short Stories'', ''Galician Short Stories'', ''German Court Stories'' and ''Russian Court Stories''.

''The Legacy of Cain''

In 1869, Sacher-Masoch conceived a grandiose series of short stories under the collective title '' Legacy of Cain'' that would represent the author's aesthetic ''Weltanschauung'' (

worldview A worldview (also world-view) or is said to be the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and Perspective (cognitive), point of view. However, whe ...

). The cycle opened with the manifesto ''The Wanderer'' that brought out

misogynist Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practised ...

themes that became peculiar to Masoch's writings. Of the six planned volumes, only the first two were ever completed. By the middle of the 1880s, Masoch abandoned the ''Legacy of Cain''. Nevertheless, the published volumes of the series included Masoch's best-known stories, and of them, ''

Venus in Furs ''Venus in Furs'' () is a novella by the Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and the best known of his works. The novel was to be part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called '' Legacy of Cain'' (). ''Venus in Furs'' was ...

'' (published 1870) is the most famous today. The novella expressed Sacher-Masoch's fantasies and fetishes (especially for dominant women wearing fur). He did his best to live out his fantasies with his mistresses and wives. In 1873 he married Angelika Aurora von Rümelin.

Private life and inspiration for ''Venus in Furs''

Fanny Pistor was an emerging literary writer. She met Sacher-Masoch after she contacted him, under the assumed name and fictitious title of Baroness Bogdanoff, for suggestions on improving her writing to make it suitable for publication. She was the inspiration for ''Venus im Pelz'' (

). The erotic novel spawned the word

Later years

In 1874, Masoch wrote the novel ''Die Ideale unserer Zeit'' (''The Ideals of Our Time''), an attempt to give a portrait of German society during its

Gründerzeit The (; ) was a period of Economic history of Europe (1000 AD–present), European economic history in mid- and late-19th century German Empire, Germany and Austria-Hungary between Industrialization in Germany, industrialization and the great P ...

period. In his late fifties, his

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

began to deteriorate, and he spent the last years of his life under

psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, mood, emotion, and behavior. Initial psychiatric assessment of ...

care. According to official reports, he died in Lindheim in 1895. (Lindheim, at that time near Altenstadt, was incorporated into the municipality of Altenstadt in 1971.) It is also claimed that Masoch died in an

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

in 1905.

Trivia

Sacher-Masoch is the great-great-uncle, through her Austrian-born mother

Eva von Sacher-Masoch Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso (4 December 1912 – 22 May 1991) was an Austrian aristocrat, great-niece of utopian humanist author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836–1895) whose father Leopold Johann Nepomuk Ritter von Sacher ("Ritte ...

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

ess Erisso, of the late English Rock star and film actress

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (29 December 1946 – 30 January 2025) was an English singer and actress who achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her UK top 10 single " As Tears Go By". She became one of the leading female art ...

. She passed away in January of 2025.

Masochism

The term ''

'' was coined in 1886 by the Austrian psychiatrist

Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (full name Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing; 14 August 1840 – 22 December 1902) was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work ''Psychopathi ...

(1840–1902) in his book ''

Psychopathia Sexualis '': '' (''Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study'', also known as '', with Especial Reference to the Antipathetic Sexual Instinct: A Medico-forensic Study'') is an 1886 book by and one of the first texts about sexual pathology. The boo ...

'': Sacher-Masoch was not pleased with Krafft-Ebing's assertions. Nevertheless, details of Masoch's private life were obscure until Aurora von Rümelin's memoirs, ''Meine Lebensbeichte'' (My Life Confession; 1906), were published in Berlin under the pseudonym Wanda v. Dunajew (the name of a leading character in his ''Venus in Furs''). The following year, a French translation, ''Confession de ma vie'' (1907) by " Wanda von Sacher-Masoch", was printed in Paris by Mercure de France. An English translation of the French edition was published as ''The Confessions of Wanda von Sacher-Masoch'' (1991) by RE/Search Publications.

Selected bibliography

* 1858 ''A Galician Story 1846'' * 1865 ''Kaunitz'' * 1866 ''Don Juan of Kolomiya'' * 1867 ''The Last King of Hungary'' * 1870 ''The Divorcee'' * 1870 '' Legacy of Cain Vol. 1: Love'' (includes his most famous work, ''

'') * 1872 ''Faux Ermine'' * 1873 ''Female Sultan'' * 1873 ''The Messalinas of Vienna'' * 1873–74 ''Russian Court Stories'': 4 Vols. * 1873–77 ''Viennese Court Stories'': 2 Vols. * 1874/76 ' 'Love Stories from Several Centuries'' 3 volumes, includes "" ("Bloody Wedding in Kyiv"), "Ariella" * 1874 ''Die Ideale unserer Zeit'' 'The Ideals of Our Time''* 1875 ''Galician Stories'' * 1877 ''The Man Without Prejudice'' * 1877 '' Legacy of Cain. Vol. 2: Property'' * 1878 ''The New Hiob'' * 1878 ''Jewish Stories'' * 1878 ''The Republic of Women's Enemies'' * 1879 ''Silhouettes'' * 1881 ''New Jewish Stories'' * 1883 ' (''The Mother of God'') * 1886 ''Eternal Youth'' * 1886 ''Stories from Polish Ghetto'' * 1886 ''Little Mysteries of World History'' * 1886 ''Bloody Wedding in Kyiv' (about

Olga of Kiev Olga (; ; – 11 July 969) was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Sviatoslav from 945 until 957. Following her baptism, Olga took the name Elenа. She is known for her subjugation of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor. E ...

) * 1887 ''Polish Stories'' * 1890 ''The Serpent in Paradise'' * 1891 ''The Lonesome'' * 1894 ''Love Stories'' * 1898 ''Entre nous'' * 1900 ''Catherina II'' * 1901 ''Afrikas Semiramis'' * 1907 ''Fierce Women''

Notes

External links

* * *
''Venus in Furs''
from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

*
The Bookbinder of Hort
, part of an anthology, ''Stories by Foreign Authors'' * *
The Letawitza

* Stanislav Tsalyk
Don Juan of Lviv
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sacher-Masoch, Leopold Von 1836 births 1895 deaths Writers from Lviv 19th-century Austrian journalists 19th-century Austrian novelists Writers from Austria-Hungary Austrian journalists Austrian socialists Austrian erotica writers BDSM writers Austrian male novelists Utopian socialists 19th-century Austrian male writers