Bahr, Hermann

Bahr, Hermann (hĕr`män bär), 1863–1934, Austrian dramatist and critic. His essay Zur Kritik der Moderne (1890) established modernism as a literary term, and his study Expressionismus (1916, tr. 1925) defined that literary trend. Bahr's plays include the comedies Das Konzert (1909, tr. 1910) and Der Meister (1914, tr. 1918).

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Bahr, Hermann 

Born July 19, 1863, in Linz; died Jan. 15, 1934, in Munich. Austrian writer.

After a trip to St. Petersburg, Bahr published A Journey to Russia (1893). He defended the principles of impressionism in the theoretical articles “To the Criticism of Modernism” (1890) and “Overcoming Naturalism” (1891) and the principles of expressionism in “Essay” (1912) and “Expressionism” (1914). The problem of marriage and art is central to his comedies and dramas—for example, The Tschaperl (1898), Viennese Women (1900; Russian translation, 1912), The Master (1903; Russian translation, 1905), and The Concert (1909; Russian translation, 1910)—and to his novels— Near Love (1893) and Theater (1897), for example.

Bahr’s creative work criticized bourgeois society from the position of unlimited individualism. His late novels— Ascension (1916) and Austria in Eternity (1929)—are permeated with mysticism and chauvinism.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Na gastroli. St. Petersburg, 1910.
Ottsy i deti. Moscow, 1910.
Fata-Morgana. St. Petersburg, 1911.
Napoleon i Zhozefina,2nd ed. St. Petersburg, 1911.

REFERENCES

Handl, W. Hermann Bahr. Berlin, 1913.
Kindermann, H. Hermann Bahr. . . . Graz-Cologne, 1954.