The author Johannes Freumbichler and his literary inheritance

In relation to his published work the Austrian author Johannes Freumbichler (1881 - 1949), has left a quite voluminous amount of notices, diaries, letters and manuscripts respectively typescripts of his oeuvre. Until today neither the importance of this inheritance has been recognised adequately nor the assessment of this author and his status has been researched sufficiently. Purpose and aim of the present research project is the expert archival revelation and the scientific preparation of this inheritance to be found in the `Thomas-Bernhard-Archiv` in Gmunden (Austria). Thus will show new, differentiated aspects on the autonomy and the inheritance of Johannes Freumbichler`s oeuvre relating to literary history as well as on his influence on his more succesfully writing grandson Thomas Bernhard (1931 - 1989). Literary scientific research is requiring archival revelation and systematic arrangement in this case (following RNA = `Regeln zur Erschließung von Nachlässen und Autographen` / `Rules for Revelation of Inheritances and Autographs`). The recently realised project in the `Thomas-Bernhard-Archiv` during three months in the year of 2002, financially supported by the state government of Salzburg, was the first important step on this way, resulting in a review and inventory (review-list) as well as a first arrangement of the voluminous inheritance. Almost 10 000 sheets of manuscripts and typescripts, more than 800 letters (c.f. correspondence with Carl and Alice Zuckmayer and publishing houses) and about 200 diary- and notebooks revealing document the biographic and social history of an writer living in the First Republic of Austria and menaced by permanent existential struggle. The present state of research already now reveals that Freumbichler`s oeuvre is standing between tradition and uprising, between a desire for order and conservative values on the one hand and social criticism with anarchistic- revolutionary elements on the other hand. Neither `Philomena Ellenhub`, a country novel published in 1937, nor the unpublished novel `Eling. Das Tal der sieben Höfe` may be shelved in the species of the conservative-traditional regional poetry (Heimatroman). Freumbichler dissociated himself of an ideology of `blood-and-soil` (`Blut-und- Boden`) during the national socialist era, his work at the same time, however, reveals deep mourning for the loss of common civil values and for the indelible decay and disappearance of rural life of the farmers (cf. F. Aspetsberger (1979), R. Langer (1999)). These aspects which could be investigated more detailed by research on the literary will show that Freumbichler`s work appears to be quite autonomous and controversial for his time. The following purposes and aims of the present research project can shortly be named: - the archival order and cataloguing (following RNA) of the literary inheritance of Johannes Freumbichler - the transcription of texts (manuscripts, letters) relevant for research-work - more detailed scientific research studies on the literary inheritance of Johannes Freumbichler documenting the biographic and literary relationship between Johannes Freumbichler and Thomas Bernhard (influences, textual reference) as well as social-historically an ambivalent artistic existence during the so called Austrian `Ständestaat` and National-Socialism - and finally the presentation of investigated results by means of book-publishing (respectively lectures) revealing new contexts, impulses and perspectives for Germanistic research as well as for a public being interested in literature.

The Austrian writer Johannes Freumbichler (1881 - 1949), grandfather of the international well known author Thomas Bernhard (1931 - 1989), has left a very extensive literary heire. In relation to his quite small published work - the novel `Philomena Ellenhub` (1936, Förderungspreis Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis 1937) may be the most famous - there existes an immense inheritance, consisting posthumous works, notices and diaries (totally approx. 15.000 sheets), about 1.600 letters (c.f. correspondence with Carl and Alice Zuckmayer, important correspondences with publish houses) and documents of biography. In the FWF-Research-Project P 16404-G06 with the duration of two years (Mai 2003 - April 2005) Johannes Freumbichlers` inheritance has been systematically arranged, reveled and catalogized for the first time according to international archival rules. Thus another important and informative source of Austrian literary historie and Thomas Bernhard specific research is accessable for germanistic science as well as for interested public in the Thomas- Bernhard-Archive (Gmunden), where Freumbichlers` inheritance is stored together with this one of his grandson. So the material, either texts, letters or documents, can be found and examined easily by the way of an inventary review-list and the catalouge of the complete inheritance of Johannes Freumbichler according to expert archival arrangement. Another innovative progress has to been seen in the transcription of selected handwritten materials, which have not been recognized relevant for research-work until yet, because it must have been reviewed and read first. The project creates the base of a new view on Johannes Freumbichlers` biography and writing as important aim of further research work. First studies, for example to the history and genetic development of Freumbichlers` work or a short comparation to Bernhards` literature, could have only been outlined. Freumbichlers` position in Austrian literature history, his influence as `teacher` on the (early) work of his grandson Thomas Bernhard or the family- history as portrait of the not untypical fate of an Austrian artist form the end of Habsburg-monarchy to the First Republic, `Ständestaat`, `Drittes Reich` up to Post-war-time after 1945 are showing the basic aims of further literary scientific work through his now arranged and accessable inheritance.