Bruckner, Ferdinand

(pseudonym of Theodor Tagger). Born Aug. 26, 1891, in Vienna; died Dec. 5, 1958, in West Berlin. Austrian writer.

Bruckner’s creative path began with expressionistic lyric poetry (the collections Gentleman in the Fog, 1917, and Tasso Destroyed, 1919) and prose (the collection of short stories On the Street, 1920). In 1922 he moved to Berlin. His plays The Criminals (1929) and Timon of Athens (1932), among others, were closer to realism. After the establishment of Hitler’s regime, Bruckner emigrated to the USA, where he lived until 1955. His trilogy The Youth of Two Wars (1947) concerns the life of Austrian and German youth. The protagonists of Heroic Comedy (1946) are the writers Madame de Staël and B. Constant as fighters against the tyranny of Napoleon. The struggle against fascism is the subject matter of the play Liberation (1945). In the tragedies The Death of a Doll (1956) and The Struggle With the Angel (1957), Bruckner exposed the mores of the contemporary bourgeoisie.