15 Facts About Georg Trakl

Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl.

Georg Trakl is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists.

Georg Trakl is perhaps best known for his poem "Grodek", which he wrote shortly before he died of a cocaine overdose.

Georg Trakl's father, Tobias Trakl, was a hardware dealer from Hungary.

Georg Trakl's mother, Maria Catharina Halik, was a housewife of partly Czech descent who struggled with substance use disorder.

Georg Trakl left her son's education to a French "gouvernante", who brought Trakl into contact with French language and literature at an early age.

Georg Trakl's sister Grete Trakl was a musical prodigy with whom he shared artistic endeavors.

Georg Trakl attended a Catholic elementary school, although his parents were Protestants.

Georg Trakl matriculated in 1897 at the Salzburg Staatsgymnasium, where he had problems in Latin, Greek, and mathematics, for which he had to repeat one year and then leave without Matura.

From May to December 1906, Georg Trakl published four prose pieces in the feuilleton section of two Salzburg newspapers.

In 1908, Georg Trakl moved to Vienna to study pharmacy, and became acquainted with some local artists who helped him publish some of his poems.

At the beginning of World War I, Georg Trakl served in the Austro-Hungarian Army and was sent as a medical officer to attend soldiers on the Eastern Front.

On one such occasion during the Battle of Grodek, Georg Trakl had to steward the recovery of some ninety soldiers wounded in the fierce campaign against the Russians.

Georg Trakl tried to shoot himself from the strain, but his comrades prevented him.

Georg Trakl was buried at Krakow's Rakowicki Cemetery on 6 November 1914, but on 7 October 1925, as a result of the efforts by Ficker, his remains were transferred to the municipal cemetery of Innsbruck-Muhlau.