He had to live with the awareness that at the age of forty he had become a part of history, and he had to turn this knowledge into a new source of inspiration. As early as the turn of the century, when he had reached the midpoint of his short life, Hofmannsthal's existence was defined by two contradictory burdens: that of an unfinished youth and that of representing the values of an old heritage. This paradox shaped his public persona and much of his creative work.
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal was born on 1 February 1874 in Vienna and was the only child of prosperous bourgeois parents. His father, Hugo August Peter Hofmann, was heir to part of a fortune that his own father, Isaak Low Hofmann, had accumulated during the first half of the nineteenth century, primarily through improvements in the manufacture of silk and in the production of potash. Hugo August Peter Hofmann was a director of the Central- Bodencreditanstalt, a prominent investment bank. In 1873 he married Anna Maria Josefa Fohleutner, whose family came from Bavaria and the Sudetenland and whose wealth derived from agriculture and the brewing business. The Hofmanns' house at 12 Salesianergasse, a prestigious neighborhood, was four stories high and had an elegant neoclassical facade; it represented social solidity, urbane civility, discreet self-assurance, and the restrained opulence of old money.
This is a free page. This page contains 195 words. This
biography contains 7,515 words (approx. 25 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Hugo von Hofmannsthal Access Pass.
