Winterabend georg trakl biography

Austrian poet (1887–1914)

Georg Trakl (3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists.^[1] He is perhaps best known for his poem "Grodek", which he wrote shortly before he died of a cocaineoverdose.

Life and work

Trakl was born and lived the first 21 years of his life in Salzburg. His father, Tobias Trakl (11 June 1837, Ödenburg/Sopron – 1910),^[2] was a hardware dealer from Hungary.

Winterabend georg trakl biography

His mother, Maria Catharina Halik (17 May 1852, Wiener Neustadt – 1925), was a housewife of partly Czech descent who struggled with substance use disorder. She left her son's education to a French "gouvernante", who brought Trakl into contact with French language and literature at an early age.

His sister Grete Trakl was a musical prodigy with whom he shared artistic endeavors. Poems allude to an incestuous relationship between the t