We know from his plays that Arthur Schnitzler’s (1862–1931) relationship with women in general and the “sweet girls” in particular is a far-flung country. His diaries show how much the female gender pushed him to the limit in his private life. With his reading as part of the Salzkammergut Festival on Friday evening in the Stadttheater Gmunden, TV entertainer Harald Schmidt gave insights into the complex love life of the much sought-after author, who at times loved four women at the same time. This pushed him to the limit, as he noted in 1896: “My favorite thing would be a harem.” But Schnitzler was also not unfamiliar with pangs of conscience: “I don’t know why I’m such a lout.”
Ironic, cheerful, smug
Harald Schmidt read the texts as one would expect him to: ironically, cheerfully, smugly. Hair and beard snow white, black glasses, dark suit, brown panties – the 64-year-old played with his somewhat avuncular charisma. He skilfully set his punch lines. Every diary entry was a laugh, but it sometimes got stuck in my throat. Because Schnitzler’s thoughts were honest, but frightening: “She is wild, but relatively true for a woman,” he wrote about one of his playmates. To Marie J. he remembered: “Your appearance could please even witty men.” Incidentally, she was the “infidelity that inflamed my love (for Fanny, note) even more”. Schnitzler had a two-year relationship with Jeanette and when he ended it, she attempted suicide and ended up as a prostitute, which Schnitzler passed without saying a word. Schmidt left such passages uncommented during his reading, which was suggested as part of a Schnitzer focus by Karin Bergmann, head of theater and literature at the festival, and compiled by Claudia Kaufmann-Freßner.
When Schnitzler’s first child died in childbirth, the author became more level-headed. In 1903 he married Olga Gussmann. They had two children. When the marriage was divorced in 1921 after many crises, the separation was not easy – for him: “I feel,” he wrote in 1923, “as if it were always a death, always a funeral.”
- Next appointment of the Schnitzler focus: Brigitte Karner and Peter Simonischek will read “The Little Comedy” on July 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Gmunden City Theater. Information on all Festwochen events: festwochen-gmunden.at
Source: Nachrichten
