Otto Julius Bierbaum

Writer

• Born: June 28, 1865
• Birthplace: Gruenberg, Germany
• Died: February 1, 1910
• Place of death: Dresden, Germany

Biography

Otto Julius Bierbaum was the son of Otto Bierbaum, a confectioner, and his wife Henriette Bierbaum, née Siegert. He spent the summers at the home of an uncle in Freystadt. When he was two, the family moved to Leipzig, where his father opened an inn.

Otto Julius was a good pupil in elementary school in Leipzig, but his high-school experiences provided him with material for Stilpe (1897), subtitled a novel from a frog’s perspective. He attended the Free Mason Institute in Dresden, the Schola Thomana in Leipzig, and then the Königliches (royal) Gymnasium in Wurzen, where he was unfairly dismissed. Bierbaum complained to the minister in charge of schooling in Saxony, who had several teachers fired and Bierbaum reinstated in good standing, but not before he had also attended the Gymnasium in Zeitz.

Bierbaum took various courses at the University of Zürich in 1885, transferred to the University of Leipzig, and then put in a year’s military service with the 107th regiment. In 1887, he went to the University of Munich and also published his first articles as an art critic. From 1888 to 1890, Bierbaum studied Chinese at the University of Berlin, hoping for a career in the Foreign Service. However, the family finances suffered a setback, placing Bierbaum in the position of having to support himself and his parents. He became a journalist, moving back to Munich in 1890 as a correspondent for the Börsen- Courier.

In 1891, Bierbaum married Gusti Rathgeber, the daughter of a schoolteacher. From 1892 to 1895, they lived in Berlin, where Bierbaum was busy as an editor and journalist. From 1896 to 1899, Bierbaum enjoyed a period of great productivity as a creative writer while living in a castle, Schlo� Englar, near Eppan in South Tyrol. A houseguest, the composer Oskar Fried, ran away with Gusti in 1898. Bierbaum divorced her in 1899, and returned to Munich.

Bierbaum was treated at the Marbach Institute for Alcoholism in 1899 and 1900 and subsequently refrained from drinking. In 1901, he married an educated Italian, Gemma Pruneti-Lotti, who was very supportive of his writing. In 1902, they enjoyed a four-month chauffeured car trip from Berlin to Sorrento and back, commissioned by Viennese newspapers. From 1904 to 1909, the Bierbaums made their home in Pasing, just southwest of Munich. In 1909, they moved to Dresden.

Bierbaum’s personal style was reflected in his Biedermeier clothes and furniture. He helped found two beautifully illustrated turn-of-the-century literary magazines, Pan and Die Insel, and paid close attention to the visual impression made by bibliophile editions of his books, negotiating all details with his publisher Georg Müller.

As an author, Bierbaum was prolific and widely read. His reputation suffered after the publication of his three-volume novel Prinz Kuckuck (prince cuckoo), seen by his contemporaries as an attack on Alfred Walter Heymel, who had financed Die Insel. After Bierbaum’s friend the author Detlev von Liliencron died on July 22, 1909, Bierbaum worked intensively on Liliencron’s biography and saw it published early in 1910. It has not been surpassed.

Bierbaum suffered from kidney disease and died of a heart attack. In the opinion of his friend Ernst von Wolzogen, Bierbaum worked himself to death. He was a versatile writer who was active on the German literary scene prior to World War I.