Berthold Viertel

Overview & Synopsis

The author and director Berthold Viertel (1885-1953), born and raised in Vienna, left a broad but fragmented autobiographical project, which changed a lot over time through exile and remigration. Katharina Prager analyses Viertels autobiographical practice and his re- and deconstructions of collective memory of a "different" Vienna around the year 1900, a counter image of the idealistic presentations by his friend Stefan Zweig. She connects his memories of "critical modernness" with studies about the Wiener Moderne in relation to 15 biographical spaces of memory. Berthold Viertel is shown as a prominent actor and networking expert in the cultural scene of Vienna, and as a typical representative of a critical avant-garde, whose lines of tradition he tried to preserve by his writing.