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Thomas Bernhard

File:Thomas_Bernhard_(1987).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Thomas Bernhard

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Also known as Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard

Austrian playwright and novelist (1931–1989)

OverviewAI-generated

Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989) was an Austrian writer, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. Born in Heerlen, Netherlands, he died in Gmunden. His notable works include *Extinction*, *The Loser*, and *Woodcutters*. He wrote in German and was educated at Mozarteum University Salzburg. Bernhard received the Anton Wildgans Prize, Georg Büchner Prize, Prix Médicis étranger, and Feltrinelli Prize.

He was a member of the Austrian People's Party and the Social Democratic Party of Austria. His unmarried partner was Marianne Hoppe. He also used the pseudonym Thomas Fabian.

Synthesized by Vinony from 42 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Europeana Sparql, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
9 February 1931
Died
12 February 1989
Works
281

Top works

  • Der Weltverbesserer, Thomas Bernhard
  • Psychologie der Zeugenaussage
  • Die ganze Welt in meines Herzens Enge
  • Die Irren, die Häftlinge
  • Ungenach

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Writing · Heerlen, Netherlands

Known for

  • Der Bauer zu Nathal – Kein Film über Thomas Bernhard — mentioned2018
  • Das Jahrhundert des Theaters — Self2002
  • Thomas Bernhard, 1931–1989 — Himself1998
  • Thomas Bernhard – Ein Widerspruch. »Die Ursache bin ich selbst« — Self1986
  • Thomas Bernhard – Eine Herausforderung. Monologe auf Mallorca — Self1981
  • Thomas Bernhard, Three Days — Himself1970
  • Grimme Award — Self1964
  • Die Feuer- und die Wasserprobe. Gespräche mit Thomas Bernhard — Self

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Germany
Active from
1931
Active to
1989
germanschlager

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
648
Total plays
18,574

Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) is seen by many as a genius. His work is most influenced by the feeling of being left alone (in his childhood and youth) and his incurable illness, which caused him to see death as the ultimate essence of existence. His most typical work are loners' monologues explaining — to a rather silent listener — his view on the state of the world on the basis of a concrete situation. This is true for his plays as well as for his prose, where the monologues are then reported se

via Last.fm · Thomas Bernhard

Works in European collections

1 object attributed to Thomas Bernhard, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~31 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard ( German: [ˈtoːmas ˈbɛʁnhaʁt]; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, poet and polemicist who is considered one of the most important German-language authors of the postwar era. He explored themes of death, isolation, obsession and illness in controversial literature that was pessimistic about the human condition and highly critical of post-war Austrian and European culture. He developed a distinctive prose style often featuring multiple perspectives on characters and events, idiosyncratic vocabulary and punctuation, and long monologues by protagonists on the verge of insanity.

Born in the Netherlands to his unwed Austrian mother, for much of his childhood he lived with his maternal grandparents in Austria and in boarding homes in Austria and Nazi Germany. He was closest to his grandfather, the novelist Johannes Freumbichler, who introduced him to literature and philosophy. As a youth, he contracted pleurisy and tuberculosis and lived with debilitating lung disease for the rest of his life. While recovering in a sanatorium he began writing poetry and stories and met Hedwig Stavianicek, a wealthy heiress who supported his literary ambitions and whom he later described as the most important person in his life.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Thomas Bernhard” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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