Rainer Maria Rilke was a German-language poet who was born in Prague in 1875.
Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in German and came from Prague, where he was born in 1875. The house on Jindřišská Street in which he was born has not survived. He moved away from Prague at the age of 21 and in later years only passed through it, living elsewhere.[1]
Childhood in Prague
According to a study by Palacký University Olomouc, Rilke grew up in modest middle-class circumstances. His father was a railway official who had earlier served as a professional soldier. The family lived in a rented flat on Jindřišská Street.[2] His mother, who had social ambitions, wanted to dress the boy as a girl until school age, in memory of a daughter who had died. The boy was still called René at the time.[1][2]
The family kept up a reputation that the father's ancestors came from an old noble line. According to the study, however, the family could not afford the standard of living it outwardly displayed, and so savings were made even on the boy's education.[2] His mother nurtured her son's imagination, praised his first literary attempts and spoke French with him in public. She rejected his knowledge of Czech as unsuitable for their social standing.[2] According to the same study, he experienced free play with children his own age only during summer stays outside the city.[2]
From 1882 to 1886 he attended an elementary school run by the Piarists. In 1884 his mother left the family, but the marriage was not dissolved.[2] A short stay at the military realschool in Hranice in Moravia in 1890 and 1891 remained, according to the study, important for his life and work.[2]
Patronesses and work
The lifelong care of noble patronesses is documented in a Czech Radio programme. It mentions Rilke's relationship with Sidonie Nádherná z Vrchotových Janovic and with Marie von Thurn und Taxis, whose guest he was at Loučeň Castle.[1] According to the programme, he worked his way up gradually to the literary mastery that made him one of the authors of European literary modernism, and his beginnings were by no means dazzling.[1]
The radio series by the Germanist Michaela Otterová presents five facets of his work. They include the socially minded poems from the cycle Voices and the piece about Cornet Christoph Rilke, which, according to the series, was used by propaganda in both world wars of the 20th century as a celebration of military heroism. The peak creative period is represented by the Sonnets to Orpheus.[1] The series also recalls a German project devoted to Rilke, in which figures from literary and musical culture took part, and a musical setting of a poem from his literary estate.[1]
According to the radio programme, Rilke remains to this day among the most popular poets in German-speaking countries, and his texts have also appeared in Czech translations.[1]