Hermann Bahr

Hermann Anastas Bahr (; 19 July 1863 – 15 January 1934) was an Austrian writer, playwright, director, and critic.

Biography Born and raised in Linz, Bahr studied in Vienna, Graz, Czernowitz and Berlin, devoting special attention to philosophy, political economy, philology and law. During a prolonged stay in Paris, he discovered his interest in literature and art. He began working as an art critic, first in Berlin, then in Vienna. In 1890, he became associate editor of Berliner Freie Bühne (Berlin Free Stage), and later became associate editor and critic of the Deutsche Zeitung (German Newspaper). In 1891 he published Fin de siècle, a collection of short stories, six of which the Prussian authorities determined to be sexually obscene, fining Bahr 150 marks. The same year, he covered the Panama scandals and interviewed Émile Zola and met but did not interview Theodor Herzl, who was covering the same story.

In 1893, using his editorial mandate as a culture critic, Bahr toured several European countries, including Britain, Belgium, France, and Spain, to interview various notable figures about antisemitism. The interviews were published the next year as the book Der Antisemitismus: Ein internationales Interview. The format was inspired by an 1891 collection about literature, Enquête sur l'évolution littéraire, by the French journalist Jules Huret. then director of the Volkstheater, of corruption concerning the Villa Bahr in Ober St.Veit, Kraus lost his only civil law case ever.

Bahr was the first critic to apply the label modernism to literary works, and was an early observer of Expressionism. His theoretical papers were important in the definition of new literary categories. His 40 plays and around 10 novels never reached the quality of his theoretical work. He died, aged 70, in Munich.

Selected fiction

Plays The New People (Die neuen Menschen – 1887) The Mother (Die Mutter – 1891) Das Tschaperl (1897) Der Star (1899) Wienerinnen (1900) Der Krampus (1902) Ringelspiel (1907) The Concert (Das Konzert – 1909) The Children (Die Kinder – 1911) Das Prinzip (1912) Der Querulant (1914) The Master (Der Meister – 1904)

Short stories and novellas The School of Love (Die gute Schule. Seelenstände – 1890) Fin de siècle (1891) Die Rahl (1908) O Mensch (1910) Österreich in Ewigkeit (1929)

Selected nonfiction

Essays Zur Kritik der Moderne (1890) Die Überwindung des Naturalismus (1891) Symbolisten (1894) Wiener Theater (1899) Frauenrecht (1912) eLibrary Austria Project (elib austria full text) Inventur (1912) Expressionismus (1916) Burgtheater (1920)

Books Der Antisemitismus: Ein internationales Interview (1894) Theater (1897) Drut (1909) Himmelfahrt (1916) Die Rotte Korahs (1919) Self-Portrait (Selbstbildnis – 1923), an autobiography