Hermann Bahr | Biography

Hermann Bahr was one of the most active and important Austrian intellectuals of his time. What made his position unique was his involvement in virtually all aspects of cultural life: he was a prolific dramatist and novelist, a producer of plays, and a literary as well as a cultural critic. This combination of the creation, management, and critique of art made him a highly influential and powerful cultural figure far beyond Vienna; but it also made him the main target of prominent opponents, above all of the journalist and satirist Karl Kraus. Kraus spent much of his life trying to discredit Bahr, and it is largely due to the success of this campaign that shortly after Bahr's death his outstanding accomplishments fell into almost complete oblivion. The awakened interest in intellectual and artistic movements of the turn of the century, however, and the editorial and critical efforts of scholars such...
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