Ilse Aichinger
| Ilse Aichinger | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1 November 1921 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 11 November 2016 (aged 95) Vienna, Austria |
| Occupation | Writer, poet, novelist, playwright |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Notable works | Die größere Hoffnung; "Spiegelgeschichte" |
| Spouse | Günter Eich (1953–1972) |
| Relatives | Ruth Rix (niece) |
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| Signature | .jpg){kind=small} |
Ilse Aichinger (1 November 1921 – 11 November 2016) was an Austrian writer known for her accounts of her persecution by the Nazis because of her Jewish ancestry. She wrote poems, short stories and radio plays, and won multiple European literary prizes.
Aichinger was born on 1 November 1921 in Vienna, Austria. She and her twin sister Helga were born to their mother, Berta, who was a Jewish physician and their father, Ludwig, who was a Catholic teacher. Because of the difference in her parents' religions, it made Aichinger to be considered half Jewish, and she was identified by the National Socialists as a "first degree half-breed". Ultimately, Aichinger was raised Catholic as her mother's family was assimilated. Aichinger spent most of her childhood in Linz, but she moved to Vienna with her mother and sister after the divorce of her parents and attended a Catholic secondary school. This is where she and her family was subjected to Nazi persecution starting in 1933 and especially after the Anschluss in 1938.
Because she was part Jewish during the time of World War II, her education was put on hold and was forced to work as a slave laborer in a factory. Aichinger's sister was able to escape Nazism through Kindertransport in July 1939 and travelled from Austria to Britain – where she eventually gave birth to a daughter, who became English artist Ruth Rix – but Aichinger herself was unable to follow. Aichinger along with her mother both survived the war after they hid in a hiding-place near the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna, Hotel Metropol. Unfortunately, her grandmother, aunt, and uncle were forced to be "resettled" to the Maly Trostenets extermination camp near Minsk where they were killed. The sight of seeing her grandmother, Gisela, being taken away had an intense emotional effect on Aichinger because of their shared fondness.
At an early age, Aichinger displayed an interest in studying medicine. She was unable to do so, however, because of the Nuremberg Laws. At the end of World War II, in 1945, she started to pursue her interest in studying medicine. Simultaneously, Aichinger wrote in her spare time. She completed her first novel, Das vierte Tor (“The Fourth Gate”). In 1948, after five semesters, she dropped out of university and abandoned her studies in medicine in order to concentrate on writing and finish her second novel, Die größere Hoffnung (“The Greater Hope”). After 1950, she was employed as a reader at the S. Fischer publishing house. In the 1950s, Aichinger was repeatedly invited to attend a meeting of Gruppe 47 (Groupe 47), a postwar group of German-speaking writers. Through her participation in Gruppe 47, she met the German writer and poet Günther Eich at a conference where she received an award for her Spiegelgeschichte (“Mirror Story” or “Story in a Mirror”). She married Eich in 1953. Her radio play debut Knöpfe (“Buttons”) was broadcast in the year of their wedding and they both traveled together until they settled down and lived in Bavaria and Austria's Salzburg region. She bore two children, Clemens Eich in 1954, and Mirjam Eich in 1958.
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