Hugo Von Hofmannsthal

Hugo Von Hofmannsthal (1874—1929) began publishing poetry as a student of sixteen. He soon became acquainted with a fin-de-siècle circle of Vienna artists and writers such as the dramatist Gerhart Hauptmann, the novelist Arthur Schnitzler, and the poet Stefan George. He was heir to the tradition of Romantic lyric that begins with Goethe and continues through Hölderlin and Eichendorff, reaching a high point in Rile, with whom Hofmannsthal was also acquainted.

If Hofmannsthal does not figure more prominently in considerations of the German lyric, it is because he turned from poetry shortly after 1900 to the composition of dramas, fiction, and, most famously, libretti, collaborating with Richard Strauss (by letter) on six operas, including Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, and Die Frau ohne Schatten.