Franz Theodor Csokor

Memorial tablet for German and Austrian refugees in Sanary-sur-Mer, among them Franz Theodor Csokor

Franz Theodor Csokor (6 September 18855 January 1969) was an Austrian author and dramatist, particularly well known for his Expressionist dramas. His most successful and best-known piece is 3. November 1918, about the downfall of the Austria-Hungary monarchy. In many of his works Csokor deals with themes of antiquity and Christianity.

Life

Csokor was born into a respectable middle-class family in Vienna. (The name Csokor is Hungarian and means bunch [of flowers]). He started on a course of art history, but did not finish it. From early on he felt a calling to be a dramatist, and composed his first pieces before World War I. He spent 1913/14 in Saint Petersburg.

During the World War I he was a soldier, and was latterly employed in the War Archives

From 1922 to 1928 Csokor was the dramaturgist at the Raimundtheater and at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna.

From 1933 he was already a decided opponent of National Socialism and signed a document saying so at the PEN congress in Dubrovnik. In 1938, after the annexation of Austria to Germany, he emigrated voluntarily, and after travelling via Poland, Romania and Hungary, ended up in Italy in 1944, where he lived in Rome. He worked for the BBC and returned to Vienna in 1946 in British uniform.

In 1947 Csokor became president of the Austrian PEN Club, with which he remained actively associated until well into his old age. In 1968 he also became vice-president of the International PEN.

As a convinced humanist Csokor spoke up in his dramas for peace, freedom and human rights. His creative life was also closely connected with the Labour movement.

Csokor was awarded the title of Professor.

He died in Vienna, and is buried in a grave of honour in the Zentralfriedhof.[1] The Csokorgasse, a street in Vienna, was named after him in 1975. In 1994 the Austrian Post Office published a special stamp in his honour.

Decorations and awards

Works

Theatrical pieces

Prose

Lyric poetry

Autobiography

References

External links

Notes

  1. Gruppe 32 C, Nummer 55
  2. "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 178. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
  3. with Der verlorene Sohn and Gottes General.
  4. with 3. November 1918 and Der verlorene Sohn.
  5. with 3. November 1918 and Gottes General.
  6. In: Auch heute noch nicht an Land. Briefe und Gedichte aus dem Exil. (see Prose).
  7. Excerpt in FTC, Der 25. Juli in Zwischenwelt. Theodor Kramer Society Jg. 27 #4, February 2011 ISSN 1606-4321 pp. 46f.
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