Ilse Aichinger was an Austrian writer known for her accounts of her persecution by the Nazis because of her Jewish ancestry.
11 Facts About Ilse Aichinger
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Ilse Aichinger wrote poems, short stories and radio plays, and won multiple European literary prizes.
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Ilse Aichinger spent her childhood in Linz and, after her parents divorced, she moved to Vienna with her mother and sister, attending a Catholic secondary school.
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In 1945, the year world war 2 ended, Ilse Aichinger began to study medicine at the University of Vienna, while writing in her spare time.
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Ilse Aichinger gave up her studies in 1948 in order to finish her novel,.
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In 1949, Ilse Aichinger wrote the short story "Spiegelgeschichte".
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In 1949, Ilse Aichinger became a reader for publishing houses in Vienna and Frankfurt, and worked with Inge Scholl to found an Institute of Creative Writing in Ulm, Germany.
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In 1951, Ilse Aichinger was invited to join the writers' group Gruppe 47, a group which aimed to spread democratic ideas in post-war Austria.
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Ilse Aichinger read her story "Spiegelgeschichte" aloud at a meeting of the group, and leading group members such as Hans Werner Richter were impressed with the unusual narrative construction.
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Ilse Aichinger was a guest lecturer at the German Institute at the University of Vienna, teaching on literature and psychoanalysis.
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Ilse Aichinger met the poet and radio play author Gunter Eich through the Group 47 and they were married in 1953; they had a son Clemens, and in 1958 a daughter, Mirjam.