Franz Theodor Csokor

Franz Theodor Csokor (6 September 1885 – 5 January 1969) was an Austrian author and dramatist, particularly well known for his expressionist dramas. His most successful and best-known piece is 3. November 1918, about the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In many of his works, Csokor deals with themes of antiquity and Christianity.

Life Csokor was born into a respectable middle-class family in Vienna; the name Csokor is Hungarian and means "bunch [of flowers]". In his youth, he began studying courses in art history, but dropped out. From early on he felt a calling to be a dramatist, and composed his first pieces before World War I. Csokor spent 1913–14 in Saint Petersburg, where he was drafted as a soldier in the war. He would later be employed at the Austrian War Archives in Vienna. From 1922 to 1928, Csokor worked as a dramaturge at the Raimundtheater and the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna.

From 1933, he was a convinced opponent of National Socialism; he was among the signatories of a statement against National Socialism at the PEN congress in Dubrovnik of that year. In 1938, after the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, he emigrated voluntarily. He spent World War II in Poland, Romania and Hungary before ending up in Italy after the fall of Mussolini in 1944, where he lived in Rome. There, he worked for the BBC. Despite travel restrictions in place at the time, Csokor returned to Vienna in 1946, dressed in a British uniform.

During the Allied occupation of Austria which lasted until 1955, Csokor settled in the British sector of Vienna, working as a freelance journalist for newspapers such as the Wiener Zeitung. In 1947, he became president of the Austrian PEN Club, in which he remained an active member until well into his old age; in 1968, he became vice-president of International PEN. After his death, the Austrian PEN Club named a literary award, the Franz-Theodor-Csokor-Preis, after him in 1970.

A convinced humanist, Csokor spoke up in his dramas for peace, freedom and human rights. His creative life was also closely connected with the labour movement. He died in Vienna in 1969, and is buried in a grave of honour in the Zentralfriedhof. The Csokorgasse, a street in Vienna, was named after him in 1975. In 1994, the Austrian Post Office published a special stamp in his honour.

Decorations and awards 1937 – Golden Laurel of the Warsaw Academy of Letters 1937 – Gold Cross of Merit (Poland) 1937 – Ring of Honour of the Vienna Burgtheater 1938 – Grillparzer Prize 1953 – Literary Prize of the City of Vienna 1954 – Member of the German Academy for Language and Literature 1955 – Ring of Honour of the City of Vienna 1955 – Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature 1960 – Golden Pen 1961 – Honorary Member of the Concordia Press Club 1965 – Austrian Decoration for Science and Art

Works

Drama

Die rote Straße, 1918 Die Stunde des Absterbens, 1919 Gesellschaft der Menschenrechte, 1929 Besetztes Gebiet, 1930 3. November 1918, 1936; Ephelant 1993. . Gottes General, 1939; Ephelant 1993. . Kalypso, 1942 Der verlorene Sohn, 1943; Ephelant 1993. . Cäsars Witwe, 1954 Pilatus, 1954 Hebt den Stein ab, 1957 Jadwiga, 1966 Der tausendjährige Traum, 1966 Alexander, 1969 Der Kaiser zwischen den Zeiten, 1969

Prose

Hildebrands Heimkehr, eine deutsche Sage, 1905 Schuß ins Geschäft (Der Fall Otto Eißler), 1925 Über die Schwelle, short stories, 1937 Der Schlüssel zum Abgrund, novel, 1955 Der zweite Hahnenschrei, short stories, 1959 Ein paar Schaufeln Erde, short stories, 1965 Auch heute noch nicht an Land. Briefe und Gedichte aus dem Exil. With Das schwarze Schiff and Zeuge einer Zeit. Ephelant 1993. .

Poetry

Die Gewalten, 1912 Der Dolch und die Wunde, 1917 Ewiger Aufbruch, 1926 Das schwarze Schiff, 1945, 1947; 1993 Immer ist Anfang, 1952

Autobiography Als Zivilist im polnischen Krieg, Allert de Lange, Amsterdam 1940 Als Zivilist im Balkankrieg, Ullstein, Vienna 1947 new edition ed. Franz Richard Reiter. Ephelant, Vienna 2000. Auf fremden Straßen, Desch, Vienna 1955 Zeuge einer Zeit: Briefe aus dem Exil 1933–1950, Langen-Müller, Munich 1955 Autobiographical sketch by Franz Theodor Csokor, ca. 1914 for Franz Brümmer; In: Digital Edition of the lexicographic papers from the literary estate of Franz Brümmer