Alma Mahler - TIC Jihlava

© Penn Libraries
© Penn Libraries
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The Composer Alma Mahler-Werfel
During her artistically active life Alma Mahler-Werfel composed or proposed more than one hundred songs, various
instrumental works, and the beginning of an opera. Of these
works only seventeen songs have been preserved. The other
compositions were lost during W.W.II or were destroyed by
Alma herself. Songs published in 1910, 1915, and 1924 have
been preserved.
In 2000 two more songs from her heritage were finally
published.
Germany
6 Alma Mahler after her marriage to Gustav Mahler
7 Alma Mahler around 1920
8 Alma Mahler with Franz Werfel in Egypt, 1930
on the title page: Alma Mahler in 1907
Poland
Alma
Mahler
Prague
Czech Republic
Jihlava
Brno
Austria
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© Penn Libraries
Slovak Republic
Issued by the Statutory Town of Jihlava in 2010, 2,500 copies printed.
Photographs: Photographic archive of the Museum of the Highlands in Jihlava.
http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/photos/mahler/ (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, title page)
and from Liebste Justi (4) publication.
Translation: Ing. Arch. Ivan Anděra. Graphic layout by Eva Bystrianská.
Printed by Antonín Prchal PROTISK – Velké Meziříčí.
House of Gustav Mahler
Znojemská 4, 586 01 Jihlava
tel.: +420 567 167 132, 133
e-mail: mahler@jihlava-city.cz
Open:
October–March: Tue–Sat 10–12, 13–18
April–September: Tue–Sun 10–12, 13–18
www.mahler.cz
Alma/ANGLICKY/vnějšek
© Penn Libraries
© Penn Libraries
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© Penn Libraries
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Most beautiful girl in Vienna (1879–1901)
Alma Schindler was born on August 31, 1879, in Vienna, the
daughter of the outstanding landscape painter Emil Jakob
Schindler and the Hamburg opera singer Anna Sofia Bergen,
who after the death of her husband married the painter Carl
Moll (1861–1945).
Alma, raised in a cultivated environment, received a thorough musical education; her favourite composers comprised
Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and in particular Richard
Wagner. Alma studied composing with an outstanding
pedagogue, Alexander von Zemlinski, with whom she had
a love affair. Under his leadership she composed a number
of songs on themes of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, Heinrich
Heine, and others.
Life with Gustav Mahler (1901–1911)
Without any doubt, the meeting of twenty-two-year-old
Alma Schindler , considered the most beautiful girl in Vienna,
with Gustav Mahler, who was nineteen years older, already
a highly appreciated composer, director and conductor of
Vienna Court Opera, was a fateful event. They met in November 1901, in December of the same year they became
engaged, and the wedding took place on March 9, 1902, in
Vienna. The marriage yielded two daughters, Marie Anna
(1902–1907), whose early death grievously affecting both
spouses, and Anna Justine (1904–1988), who became
a sculptress.
Almar/ANGLICKY/vnitřek
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Alma felt lonely with Mahler, she used to spend most of
her time in spas and apart from her husband, who suffered
above all from her love affair with the young architect Walter
Gropius. The revelation of the relationship was also reflected
in Mahler’s Tenth symphony in F Sharp Major, which is filled
with intimate passages. However, Alma accompanied her
husband on journeys in the USA from 1907 to 1910. During
the last trip around the USA Mahler fell ill. Alma travelled
with him back to Europe. Gustav Mahler died on May 18,
1911, at the age of almost 51.
Ups and downs (1911–1938)
After Mahler’s death Alma Mahler was in the prime of life
and, thanks to her widow’s pension and inheritance from
Mahler, she was also a very well-off woman. She took care of
Mahler’s musical heritage; in her Vienna salon she received
musicians, conductors, and artists. She engaged in several
love affairs (for instance, with the painter Oskar Kokoschka), before 1915, when she married for the second time
to an architect Walter Gropius (1883–1969); together they
produced a daughter, Manon, in 1916. In 1920 the marriage
ended in divorce. Since 1919 Alma had been living with
the poet and writer Franz Werfel (1890–1945), whom she
married in 1929. The death of her daughter Manon in 1935
was very painful for Alma.
Emigration (1938–1945)
In 1938 Alma Mahler-Werfel together with Franz Werfel emigrated to France and in 1940 to the United States of America. They settled in Los Angeles, where many German and
Austrian emigrants lived. There Werfel wrote his novel Song
of Bernadetta, which became a bestseller. Alma continued
to lead a rich social life. Franz Werfel died in 1945.
La grande Veuve – “The Great Widow”
(1945–1964)
Thomas Mann called Alma Mahler-Werfel “la grande Veuve
– the Great Widow” after the death of Franz Werfel. Besides
Gustav Mahler’s heritage, Alma minded the heritage of Franz
Werfel. In 1951 she moved to New York. There she worked on her autobiography, which was published under name
of My Life and drew mixed reviews.
Alma Mahler-Werfel died on December 11, 1964, at the
age of 85 in New York and was buried next to her daughter
Manon at Grinzing cemetery in Vienna.
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Alma Schindler (left) and her stepsister Greta in 1891
G. Mahler with daughter Maria, Maiernigg 1905
Alma Mahler with daughters in 1906
Alma and Gustav Mahler, Toblach 1909–1910
Alma Mahler, 1920–1923
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