HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL. - Austrian writer, born in Vienna on 10 February 1874, died at Rodaun (near Vienna) on 15 July 1929. Alongside Stefan George and Rainer Maria Rilke, he effectively fought against naturalism, opposing to its materialistic forms a refined and delicate poetry, rich in interiority. Published while still barely fifteen years old, his first verses (under the pseudonym "Loris") and at seventeen the drama *Gersten* (under the pseudonym "Theophil Morren"), by the age of nineteen he was already famous for the short drama *Der Tor und der Tod*, preceded the previous year by a fragment of another little play, *Der Tod des Tizian* (1901).
In these early works, one finds, above all, a prodigious ability to assimilate and evoke the tones, forms, and accents of *Faust*, Shakespeare, Hauptmann, and Stifter, as well as to convey, through language, both the musical and the pictorial qualities of speech. Yet beyond all this, there was in Hofmannsthal a profound torment aimed at an ever-deeper interpretation and possession of reality. Hence the progressive interiorization of his later production. The dramas *Der Kaiser und die Hexe* (1897) and *Die Frau ohne Schatten* (1919) mark the two main stages in this direction, together with *Der Turm* (1925), which also retains a political tone with its enthusiastic celebration of the world of the spirit as the sole salvation for both individuals and states. This stance (which culminated in the 1927 Munich speech to students: *Das Schrifttum als geistiger Raum der Nation*) is nothing other than a manifestation of his constant striving toward that "universal human," of which his passion for the theater remains the most eloquent expression, and of which one can also discern a significant indication in his never having strayed—unlike George—from his original Catholicism into any form of paganism. He also left some minor dramas: the libretti for Strauss, *Der Rosenkavalier* (1911), *Ariadne auf Naxos* (1912), and *Die Frau ohne Schatten* (1919); a few lyrics (*Gesammelte Gedichte*, 1907); and an unfinished novel: *Andreas oder die Vereinigten* (1911–32).