TimeSearch for Books and Writers by Bamber Gascoigne. Austrian dramatist, novelist, short story writer and critic, who dealt with the theme of illusion and reality in many variations.
After the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Arthur Schnitzler lost the cultural background of his work. Among his masterpieces is Regien La Ronde , labelled as obscene. The notoriety of the play haunted the author throughout his career. Arthur Schnitzler was born in Vienna, the son of Professor Johann Schnitzler, a distinguished Jewish throat specialist, and Louise Markbreiter, a doctor's daughter.
Schnitzler's brother Julius became a surgeon and his sister Gisela married a rhinologist. At the age of 16, Schnitzler visited a prostitute and when his father found out, he showed his son an illustrated treatise on sexually transmitted diseases. Schnitzler started writing as a boy, with poetry that was published in a prominent newspaper. He also became a competent amateur pianist. Although his father disapproved of his literary aspirations, Schnitzler held him in high esteem; the title character of his comedy Professor Bernhardi , about old and new in the medical profession, is supposedly modelled on him.
The play was suppressed until and caused outrage amongst anti-semites because of its portrayal of a Jew, who refuses to compromise his convictions. However, Schiltzer portrayed Bernardi as an unwilling martyr. Following in the footsteps of his father, Schnitzler qualified for his own surprise in medicine at the University of Vienna in - he had spent more time with his plays and other writings than with his studies. At the same time Schnitzler had developed a keen interest in psychiatry.
In the early s, Schnitzler had started to write plays, which were first presented, in Czech, in Prague. After the death of his father in , Schnitzler gave up his hospital post and kept only a few private patients. With Liebelei , produced at the Burgtheater in , Schnitzler became famous all over Austria and Germany.
