Karl Heinrich Waggerl
The simplicity of his narrative combined with a
kind sense of humour and his ever present meditative thoughtfulness
were to be the author's characteristic qualities. His writing draws
from the immediate, the sensuous experience of his rural environment
reflected in its everday ocurrence. K. H. Waggerl also committed
himself to some of the public agenda in the municipality of Wagrain
(association work, evolution of tourism, he became eventually mayor
of Wagrain in 1940). Waggerl did not oppose the National Socialists
efforts to claim his works. |
K. H. Waggerl was born on Dec 10th.1897 as the son of a carpenter in Bad
Gastein. He grew up in poor circumstances and completed the teacher class
in Salzburg. He served as an officer in World War I but later fell into
Italian captivity till 1920. He then married Edith Pitter and took up a
job as a teacher in Wagrain. Forced by a chronic lung disease to resign
his post at the local school in 1923 he tried his hand at creative writing.
His first novel "Bread" was published by the renowned Insel-Verlag
in 1930.
Further novels followed:
1931 - "Heavy Blood"
1934 - "The Year of the Lord" ,
in 1935 - "Mothers"
Akt from K. H. Waggerl |
In the aftermath of World War II he engaged
in numerous public readings throughout Austria, Germany and Switzerland
and thus became known to a wider public. As for his style Waggerl
then increasingly turned to the forms of small prose. His books have
sold more than five million copies and have been translated into
more than a dozen languages.Among his further writings are: "Wagrainer
Tagebuch"-1936, "Heiteres Herbarium"1950, "Liebe Dinge"1956, "Das
ist die stillste Zeit im Jahr"-1956
K. H. Waggerl died on Nov4 th 1973 in a road accident. Another passion
of K. H. Waggerl was photography. Some of his pictures (see act above)
were only found in recent years in the Waggerl-Haus when this was built
into a museum.
Translated by Matthias Weinzettl |
