Michael Guttenbrunner

Guttenbrunner, Michael (Althofen, Austria, 1919- ), lost his father, a farm labourer, at an early age, was persecuted by the National Socialist regime, and while serving in the army barely escaped execution. After the war he turned to writing, publishing mainly poetry in which he commemorates past sufferings and condemns the political and literary perpetrators of man's ‘crucifixion’; the titles of his first two collections, Schwarze Ruten (1947) and Opferholz (1954) are symbolical. Subsequent volumes in which he also denounces post-war conditions in Austria, include Ungereimte Gedichte (1959), Die lange Zeit (1965), Der Abstieg (1975), and Gesang der Schiffe (1980); Im Machtgehege (1976) is a volume of prose. Later writings of prose and verse are collected in the volume Lichtvergeudung. Neue Texte und Gedichte (1995). His melancholy stance has reminded critics of Trakl, his linguistic stringency of K. Kraus. His own criticism is directed at the style of J. Weinheber as well as at the experimentalism of H. Heißenbüttel. Under the pseudonym Straßburg he contributed for a time to the ‘Surrealistische Publikationen’ edited by M. Hölzer. Spuren und Überbleibsel (1947) is autobiographical. In 1989 Guttenbrunner was awarded the Kulturpreis des Landes Kärnten.