Richard Beer-Hofmann was an Austrian dramatist and poet. He was successful as an art nouveau writer. He became the poetic spokesman of his Jewish heritage.
Background
Richard Beer-Hofmann was born in Vienna, Austria. He was a son of Hermann Beer, an attorney, and Rosa Beer. Till 1880, when the family moved to Vienna, Richard lived in Brno, Czech Republic. His mother died after his birth and in 1884, he was adopted and raised until the age of fourteen by his uncle and his aunt, Berta and Alois Hofmann. That's why the name Hofmann was legally added to his surname.
Education
Richard Beer-Hofmann finished the Akademisches Gymnasium at Vienna, Austria. In 1883, he entered the University of Vienna where he studied law and graduated from it in 1890 with a Doctor of Law degree.
Beer-Hofmann’s career started in circle of Austrian writers known as “Young Vienna” where he was the most influential member. There, he began to write fiction, and produced two important novellas: Came lias in 1891 and Das Kind (The Child), both of which were published in the 1893 volume Novellen. The same year, Beer-Hofmann began working on the novel Der Tod Georgs, but it was not published until 1900.
In 1897, "Schlafliedfiir Miriam" (“Lullaby for Miriam”) was published. This one was followed by his novel "Der Tod Georgs" (“George’s Death”) in 1901.
His first drama, "Der Graf von Charolais" (“The Count of Charolias,” 1904), won wide acclaim. Then he began his biblical trilogy centering on David, in whom he saw the symbolic personification of the Jewish soul.
Ceasing to write fiction after 1906, he turned to theatrical work and forged a distinguished career as both a playwright and a stage director in Vienna, Austria. That time, he was a theatrical director for Burgtheater, Vienna, Austria, with Max Reinhardt. He conceived and began a trilogy of plays based on the life of the biblical King David. The play "Jaakobs Traum" (“Jacob’s Dream,” 1918) served as prologue to the trilogy. The first play, Jaakobs Traum: Ein Vorspiel (Jacob's Dream) was shown in 1919 as a hoped-for counterinfluence to anti-Semitism. Beer-Hofmann’s second David play, Der Junge David: Sieben Bilder (The Young David) was completed and published in 1933, but in the same year, his works were banned in Germany by the Nazis. The third play in the tril-ogy, Vorspiel aufdem Theater zu Koenig David (Prelude to the Theater of King David) was published in Vienna in 1936. The trilogy was staged not only in the German original in Vienna and Berlin, but also in a Hebrew version in Moscow, Tel-Aviv, and New York.
In 1932, Beer-Hofmann directed the adaptation of Faust by Johann Wilhem von Goethe for centennial of Goethe’s death, which was produced at Burgtheater from 1932-1938.
In 1939, Beer-Hofmann went to New York after being denied per-mission to remain in Switzerland. He was welcomed by the American literary world, and in 1944, he became a lecturer at many universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and Smith College.
"Is probably the most representative example of literary art nouveau in the German language." Elstun about the novel Der Tod Georgs (The Death of Georg).
Connections
Richard Beer-Hofmann married Paula Lissy in 1897. The couple had one daughter, Miriam Beer-Hofmann Lens, who was born the same year.