ANZENGRUBER, LUDWIG. - Dramatist and narrator, b. in Vienna on 29 Nov. 1839, d. there on 10 Dec. 1889. With the rural drama Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld, published in 1870, a typical expression of the Austrian Kulturkampf, A. immediately gave full measure of his art. Although the protagonist’s inner struggle between duty and love may at times seem conventional, and the polemics against the Church and the Papacy are wholly outdated, the drama as a whole is alive, and some secondary figures are sketched with sure psychological insight. The subsequent dramas likewise draw inspiration from the same political-moral tendencies; the social question is added to the anticlerical polemic. In the drama Das vierte Gebot (1878), the naturalism of the 1890s would see some of its problems anticipated. In 1876 A. turned to narrative, publishing the novella Der Schandflech and, in 1883, the naturalistic novel Der Sternsteinhof.
ANZENGRUBER, LUDWIG
BIBL.: Editions: Sämtliche Werke mit erstmaliger Benitzung des ganzen handschriftlichen Nachlasses, edited by R. Latzke and O. Rommel, in collab. with his son K. Anzengruber, 15 vols., Vienna 1918-23. - Studies: A. Bettelheim, L. A.: Der Mann, sein Werk und seine Weltanschauung, Lipsia 1898; id., Neue Gänge mit A., Vienna 1919; A. Kleinberg, L. A., Stoccarda 1921.
Cite this article
“ANZENGRUBER, LUDWIG.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I (1948), p. 950. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/anzengruber-ludwig.