Background

Hermann Broch was born on November 1, 1886, in Vienna, Austria. He was born into a Jewish family of industrialists in the textile sector. He was the son of Josef and Johanna Broch.

Education

Hermann Broch studied textile engineering at Mulhausen (now Mulhouse, France) and in Alsace. His training was geared towards taking responsibility for a family business in Teesdorf in textile manufacturing, spinning, and weaving. Also, he attended the University of Vienna from 1925 to 1930. He studied mathematics, philosophy, and psychology.

Career

Hermann Broch was an influence in philosophy, social studies, and non-traditional writings.

His father encouraged him to study business so Hermann could work at the family textile factory, but Hermann Broch hoped to study in the humanities. After learning engineering at Mulhausen (now Mulhouse), he traveled to the United States on the premise of uncovering means of producing cotton and returned to become an administrator at the factory in Teesdorf in 1907.

After his brother, Friedrich, joined the Austrian air force, Hermann Broch assumed all of the responsibilities of running the family business. Hermann then began visiting the literary cafes in Vienna, and in 1918, he published "Eine metholodogische Novell" in "Summa," a journal of literature.

Later, in 1927, he sold the textile factory and decided to study mathematics, philosophy, and psychology at the University of Vienna.

In 1930 Hermann Broch was introduced to Daniel Brody. They planned to publish Broch's novel trilogy "Die Schlafwandler" and came to a contract agreement on "Pasenow oder die Romantik," the initial installment. Hermann's constant revisions forced publishing delays in the book and the following two segments. The book was not available for Christmas, as planned. The reworking did not stop until April 1932, when the final part was at last published. Hermann hurt himself financially with these delays, and this trend would continue throughout his literary career.

In "Die Schlafwandler," Hermann Broch illustrates Germany's development in three stages: romantic, anarchistic, and objective. Intellectuals liked Hermann's work, but the public at large had little exposure to his novels, and the result was a financial disaster. His work drew more literary acclaim, but his finances did not improve. Hermann Broch, looking for revenue, began speaking at the Ottakring Adult Education Center in Vienna, where he read his essays. Hoping to publish these essays in a compilation, Hermann spoke to Brody, but Brody denied his request.

Next, Hermann Broch tried to write plays. "Die Entsühnung" was his first work. This play was not performed until March 1934, in Zurich, after the producer eliminated the scene Hermann considered most important. When the production was canceled, he continued his work on his next play, "Aus der Luft gegriffen." This attempt was deemed unsuitable for the stage, and Hermann turned to write novels.

Published in 1933, "Die Unbekannte Grösse," translated as "The Unknown Quantity," recounts the life of Richard Hieck, a mathematician determined to control life through the rational application of science. Hermann Broch was dissatisfied with the conclusion of the novel, and then he authored poetry. Some of his works were included in "Patmos: Zwolf Lyriker," an anthology edited by Ernst Schönwiese. He also produced five shorter novels and made a vain attempt to have these published in a single volume. After writing a screenplay for director Berthold Viertel, Hermann adapted "Die unbekannte Grösse" into a screenplay. The film has never produced, and nothing ever came of an offer from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to film The Sleepwalkers.

Recovering from disappointments, Hermann Broch began working on "Die Verzauberung," which was published in 1976. Hoping to find peace to complete his work, Hermann moved to the country. He stopped work on the novel to write "Erwagungen zum Problem des Kultertodes," which was published in 1936 in Silberboot. Returning to work on his novel, he finished the initial draft and sent it to Brody. Having planned that "Die Verzauberung" would be the first section of a trilogy, Hermann never completed the third version, which was published posthumously.

In the following years, Hermann Broch spent much time attempting to settle his father's estate. Moving to Alt-Aussee in Syria, he continued work on a short novel, "Die Heimkehr des Vergil." After German soldiers marched into Austria in 1938, Hermann was imprisoned after his postman reported him for receiving the controversial literary magazine "Das Wort." Continuing to work on his novella, he was eventually released and ordered to report to the police in Vienna. Instead of following these orders, he stayed in seclusion with friends. Through the help of acquaintances, Hermann received an exit visa and moved to Great Britain. Then he left for New York, where he met Jean Starr Untermeyer, the poet who would translate his novel about Vergil.

With German novelist Thomas Mann's help, Hermann Broch obtained a Guggenheim fellowship stipend until 1941 and continued his research in the psychology of the masses. He also collaborated with Antonio Borgese to compile a book promoting democracy. "The City of Man: A Declaration on World Democracy" was released by Viking Press in 1940. Through this work, Hermann was able to obtain further financial support for his study of psychology, a project that was never completed. In 1942, his "Der Tod des Vergil" was awarded a prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Hermann was able to pay his debts. The novel was finally published in 1945.

After rejecting a position in literature and psychology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Hermann Broch continued to live on a stipend he received each month from well-to-do German exile Wilhelm Roth. Hospitalized for a broken leg, he began writing about Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The completed study was published after his death as "Hugo von Hofmannsthal und seine Zeit" in 1975. His next effort was a collection of short stories titled "Die Schuldlosen."

When he died in 1951, Hermann Broch had received neither fame nor wealth from his literary achievements. In more recent years, however, he has been cited as one of the most astute social critics of his time.

Achievements

• Hermann Broch is best known as a philosophically attuned novelist. During the 1930s Broch produced a considerable number of writings, numerous articles, essays, and poems, as well as a play, "Die Entsühnung."
  
  He is the author of two extraordinarily accomplished works of European modernist fiction: "Die Schlafwandler" and "Der Tod des Vergil." In 1942, his "Der Tod des Vergil" was awarded a prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. "Die Schlafwandler" is a trilogy, where Broch takes "the degeneration of values" as his theme.
  
  Hermann Broch was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Death of Virgil

    ("The Death of Virgil" is a part historical novel and part...)

    1945
  • The Guiltless

    (Murder, lust, shame, hypocrisy, and suicide are at the ce...)

    1950
  • The Sleepwalkers

    (Hermann Broch grounded his narratives in the intimate dai...)

    1932
  • The Unknown Quantity

    (Mild and sensitive Richard Hieck endured a quietly diffic...)

    1933
  • Short Stories

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 1951.)

    1966
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal and His Time

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 195...)

    1974
  • The Spell

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 1951.)

    1976
  • Geist and Zeitgeist: The Spirit in an Unspiritual Age

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 195...)

    2003
  • Die Verzauberung

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 1951.)

    1953
  • Novellen

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 1951.)

    1994
  • Politische Schriften

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 1951.)

    1978
  • Gedichte

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 1951.)

    1981
  • Dramen

    (The book was published after Hermann Broch's death in 1951.)

    1979
  • Die Unbekannte Größe 1933
  • Massenwahntheorie: Beiträge zu einer Psychologie der Politik 1979

Religion

In 1909 Hermann Broch converted from Judaism to Catholicism.

Politics

Hermann Broch turned to activism after he was arrested by the Nazis in 1938. He wrote anti-fascist tracts and developing his League of Nations Resolution, which pressured that organization to take a stand against European fascism.

Views

Hermann Broch stood for human rights. He wanted to create a stable, open democracy in which the individual's human rights and dignities were protected and to guide the individual towards an ethical value system.

Quotations: "Children have a more restricted and yet a more intense feeling for nature than grown-ups."

"Those who live by the sea can hardly form a single thought of which the sea would not be part."

"No one's death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humanness."

"The world has always gone through periods of madness to advance a bit on the road to reason."

"The man who is thus outside the confines of every value-combination, and has become the exclusive representative of an individual value, is metaphysically an outcast, for his autonomy presupposes the resolution and disintegration of all system into its elements; such a man is liberated from values and style and can be influenced only by the irrational."

Connections

Hermann Broch married Franziska von Rothermann on December 11, 1909, and divorced in 1923. They had a son, Hermann Friedrich. In 1949 Hermann married Annemarie Meier-Graefe.

Father:

Josef Broch

Mother:

Johanna Broch

Johanna Broch's maiden name was Schnabel.

Wife:

Franziska von Rothermann

Hermann Broch and Franziska von Rothermann divorced in 1923.

Son:

Hermann Friedrich Broch

Wife:

Annemarie Meier-Graefe

Brother:

Friedrich Broch

Friend:

Jean Starr Untermeyer

Jean Starr Untermeyer was an American poet.

colleague:

Daniel Brody

Friend:

Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann was a multifaceted author with a prolific output of fiction and novels.

colleague:

Antonio Borgese

Antonio Borgese was an Italian writer.

References

• Hermann Broch: A Biography
  1987
• A Companion to the Works of Hermann Broch
  2019