Ingeborg Bachmann

June 25, 1926, Klagenfurt, Austria – October 17, 1973, Rome, Italy

“No new world without a new language.” Ingeborg Bachmann, The Thirtieth Year: Stories

Ingeborg Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, Carinthia as the first child of the school teacher Mathias Bachmann and his wife Olga. After completing secondary school in Klagenfurt, Ingeborg studied philosophy, psychology all over Austria before she settled down in Vienna.  

Early on she displayed exceptional gifts as a writer of dense prose and mellifluous lyrics, demonstrating keen awareness of political conflict and a sensitivity to cultural differences. In 1951, she started working as an editor at the radio station Rot-Weiss-Rot. The job enabled Bachmann to obtain an overview of contemporary literature and also supplied her with a decent income. Furthermore, her first radio plays were published by the station.

In 1952, she managed her lyrical breakthrough with a reading at the "Gruppe 47", a loose confederation of writers known for their ardent interest in theory and debate. From 1957 to 1963, during the time of her troubled relationship with Swiss author Max Frisch, Bachmann alternated between Zurich and Rome, eventually settling down in Rome. She rejected marriage as “an impossible institution. Impossible for a woman who works and thinks and wants something for herself”.

In 1961, her partly autobiographic collection of short stories Das dreißigste Jahr (The Thirtieth Year) was published, in which she criticized post-war society. In 1971, she wrote her first novel Malina, taking on a very introverted stance and exploring the possibilities of subjective 'female writing' long before feminism pocketed the concept. Malina was part of her unfinished project Todesarten (Ways of Dying). Her poetry collections Gestundete Zeit (Deferred Time) and Anrufung des Großen Bären (Invocation of the Great Bear) were highly successful.

However, her novels Der Fall Franza (Franza's Case) and Requiem für Fanny Goldmann (Requiem for Fanny Goldmann) where published posthumously and in fragments only. The last published work during her lifetime was Simultan (1972), a volume of prose narratives, unties in its title Bachmann’s major cultural interests: Salvic and Italian themes expressed by unnamed protagonists who traverse countries, communicate in different languages, and work as translators. In 1973, Ingeborg Bachmann died, because she fell asleep smoking in her bed. She was 47 years old.

She taught at Harvard University and the University of Frankfurt. Her honors include membership in the West Berlin Academy of Arts, an Austrian National Medal, and a Georg Büchner Prize from the German Academy for Language and Literature. One of Austria's major annual literary awards was named in her honor Ingeborg Bachmann price. Some of her short stories and radio plays have been turned into movies.

An obsessive reader and compulsive writer, fluent in four languages, intimately familiar with most countries of Western Europe, Bachmann encompasses and transforms these experiences in her works. Her sombre, surreal writings often deal with women in failed love relationships, the nature of art and humanity, and the inadequacy of language.  

In our library, you find following books by Ingeborg Bachmann, audiobooks of her works and books on her life and works:

Bachmann, Ingeborg: The book of Franza & Requiem for Fanny Goldmann. Hydra Books, 1999. 233 S.
ISBN: 0810112043
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Correspondence: Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan. Seagull, 2010. 373 S., [10] Bl.
ISBN: 978-1906497446
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Der gute Gott von Manhattan, Hörspiel. Der Hörverlag, 2005. 2 CDs
ISBN: 9783899406405
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Herzzeit. Ingeborg Bachmann - Paul Celan; der Briefwechsel. Suhrkamp, 2008. 399 S.
ISBN: 9783518420331
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Herzzeit. Briefwechsel. Speak Low, 2009. 4 CDs
ISBN: 9783940018038
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Ingeborg Bachmann liest Malina Prosa aus den Jahren 1968-1971; Lesungen. Der Hörverlag, 2007. 3 CDs
ISBN: 9783899403626
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Ingeborg Bachmann liest Die gestundete Zeit. Frühe Gedichte und Prosa. Der Hörverlag, 2004. 1 CD (65 Min.)
ISBN: 3899403444
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Kriegstagebuch, mit Briefen von Jack Hamesh an Ingeborg Bachmann. Suhrkamp, 2010. 107 S.
ISBN: 9783518421451
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Malina. Roman. Suhrkamp, 2004. 388 S.
ISBN: 9783518188569
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Malina,  a novel. Holmes & Meier, 1999. 244 S.
Original: Malina (engl.)
ISBN: 0841911894
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: The Radio Family. Seagull Books, 2014. 354 p.
Original: Die Radiofamilie (engl.)
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Songs in flight, the collected poems of Ingeborg Bachmann. Marsilio, 1994. 337 S.
ISBN: 1568860102
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Three paths to the lake, stories. Holmes & Meier, 1989. XXVII, 212 S., Original: Simultan (engl.)
ISBN: 0841910707
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: War diary, with letters from Jack Hamesh. Seagull, 2011. 108 p.
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Werke. 1, Gedichte, Hörspiele, Libretti, Übersetzungen. Piper, 1978. 682 S.
ISBN: 3492022863
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Werke. 2, Erzählungen. Piper, 1978. 608 S.
ISBN: 3492022863
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Werke. 3, Todesarten: Malina und unvollendete Romane. Piper, 1978. 562 S.
ISBN: 3492022863
      
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Werke. 4, Essays, Reden, vermischte Schriften, Piper, 1978. 541 S.
ISBN: 3492022863
 
Achberger, Karen: Understanding Ingeborg Bachmann. Univ. of South Carolina Press,1995. XIX, 207 S.
ISBN: 0872499944
       
Bird, Stephanie: Women writers and national identity, Bachmann, Duden, Özdamar. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003. X, 246 S.
ISBN: 0521824060
 
McMurtry, Áine: Crisis and form in the later writing of Ingeborg Bachmann, an aesthetic examination of the poetic drafts of the 1960s. Modern Humanities Research Association, 2012. VIII, 250 S.
ISBN: 9781907322396
 
Stoll, Andrea: Ingeborg Bachmann: der dunkle Glanz der Freiheit; [Biografie]. Bertelsmann, 2013. 381, [16] S.
ISBN: 9783570101230
   
In our eLibrary you find following eBooks by Ingeborg Bachmann, audiobooks of her works and eBooks and audiobooks on her life and works:

Bachmann, Ingeborg: Correspondence Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan. Seagull Books, 2010
ISBN: 9780857422835
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,55-0-367589995-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Das dreißigste Jahr. Erzählungen. Piper eBooks, 2016.
ISBN: 9783492974547
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,51-0-461546570-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Die gestundete Zeit, Gedichte. Piper eBooks, 2016
ISBN: 9783492972796
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,51-0-461546609-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Der gute Gott von Manhattan. Hörverlag, 2015 (Audiobook)
ISBN: 9783844519648
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-375087710-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Herzzeit. Ingeborg Bachmann – Paul Celan. Suhrkamp, 2010
ISBN: 9783518730911
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-357136602-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Kriegstagebuch mit Briefen von Jack Hamesh. Suhrkamp, 2015
ISBN: 9783518730805
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-369976230-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Kriegstagebuch Lesung des Tagebuchs von Ingeborg Bachmann und der Briefe von Jack Hamesh. Audiobuch, 2010
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-354389550-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Malina. Roman. Suhrkamp, 2013
ISBN: 9783518734704
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-362119135-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: Die Radiofamilie. Suhrkamp, 2012
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-358062068-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: The Radio family [The German List]. Seagull Books, 2014.
ISBN: 9780857422033
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-367321784-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Bachmann, Ingeborg: War Diary with letters from Jack Hamesh; [The German List]. Seagull Books, 2011
ISBN: 9780857420480
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-367590138-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Ingeborg Bachmanns Gedichte aus dem Nachlass eine kritische Bilanz / Red.: Arturo Larcati. Isolde Schiffermüller. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2010
ISBN: 9783534710928
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-357364261-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
McVeigh, Joseph: Ingeborg Bachmanns Wien 1946-1953. Insel Verlag,
ISBN: 9783458742678
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,51-0-403651095-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
 
Stoll, Andrea: Ingeborg Bachmann: Der dunkle Glanz der Freiheit. C. Bertelsmann, 2013
http://www.onleihe.de/goethe-institut/frontend/mediaInfo,0-0-362092487-100-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html