Grete Trakl
| Grete Trakl | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Trakl, Margarethe Jeanne 8 August 1891 Salzburg, Duchy of Salzburg |
| Died | 17 September 1917 (aged 26) Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation | musician, pianist |
| Citizenship | Austro-Hungarian; Germany |
Grete Trakl, full name Margarethe Jeanne Trakl, married name Grete Langen (* 8 August 1891 in Salzburg; † 21 September 1917 in Berlin) was an Austrian pianist and sister of the Austrian poet Georg Trakl.
Margarethe Jeanne Trakl was born in Salzburg as the youngest of seven children. She also had an elder half-brother, Wilhelm, son of the father's first marriage. Tobias Trakl (1837–1910) was an ironmonger. As a merchant and owner of a house at Waagplatz he became official citizen of the city of Salzburg. From that time, the family strived to be regarded as bourgeois, in the sense of belonging to "Bildungsbürgertum", although the family from both sides could hardly be regarded as such. Tobias Trakl (originally Trackl) came from Ödenburg (Sopron) in Hungary, where his family can be traced back until the middle of the 17th century, earning a living as winegrowers. The mother, Maria Catharina Halik (1852–1925), also spelled Hallick or Hawlick, was born in Wiener Neustadt, but her family came from Prague. Her ancestors were all Slavs; they can be traced back until the mid 1700s in Prague's Nové Mešto (New Town), working as gardeners.
As a child, Grete grew up in the spacious Weigh house in the middle of the Waagplatz/Mozartplatz. When she was six years old she went to the local catholic public school. She was a good pupil and hardly ever ill. In 1901 she was sent to a boarding school for girls in Sankt Pölten, the "Internat der Englischen Fräulein". Here too she got good grades and was hardly sick. In the third grade however she received the highest grades for only three subjects: manners, music and singing. Grete was musically very talented; already as a child she outperformed her siblings, who all received piano lessons.
In 1904 Grete moved from St. Pölten to Vienna to stay at the boarding school "Notre Dame de Sion". At this school she gained better opportunities to develop het talent. During the last year (1908–1909) of the "Higher French School" of this institute she was allowed to enroll at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna at the same time. She was admitted into the second year, skipping the first, because of her musical abilities. She left the Conservatory however before the year was over.
From autumn 1909 onwards Grete lived on her own in Vienna and was probably privately tutored by a (hitherto unknown) pianist, as was the practice with talented pupils. During this academic year she regularly met her brother Georg and his friend Erhard Buschbeck. Buschbeck provided Grete with opium. Over the years a long-lasting friendship developed between the two.
...
Wikipedia