Walter Gropius
Who was the spouse of Alma Mahler from 1915 to 1920?
Alma Mahler Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel ( born Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler ; 31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964 ) was a Viennese-born composer , author , editor and socialite . At fifteen , she was mentored by Max Burckhard . Musically active from her early years , she was the composer of nearly fifty songs for voice and piano , and works in other genres as well . Only seventeen songs are known to survive . In her early years , she fell in love with composer and conductor Alexander von Zemlinsky , but their relationship did not last long . She became the wife of composer Gustav Mahler , who insisted ( as a condition of their marriage ) that she give up composing . Eventually she fell into depression from being artistically stifled . While her marriage was struggling , she had an affair with Walter Gropius . Gustav started to encourage Almas composing and helped prepare some of her compositions for publication , but died soon after this attempted reconciliation in 1911 . Alma married Gropius in 1915 and the couple had a daughter together , Manon Gropius . During her marriage to Gropius , Alma had an affair with Franz Werfel . Alma and Werfel were eventually married after Alma separated from Gropius . In 1938 , after the Anschluss , Werfel and Alma were forced to flee Austria as it was unsafe for Jews . Eventually the couple settled in Los Angeles . In later years , her salon became part of the artistic scene , first in Vienna , then in Los Angeles and in New York . Early years . Alma Maria Schindler was born on 31 August 1879 in Vienna , Austria ( then Austria-Hungary ) , to the famous landscape painter Emil Jakob Schindler and his wife Anna Sofie . She was tutored at home and brought up in the Catholic Church . In 1886 Crown Prince Rudolf found interest in Emil Jakob Schindlers paintings and commissioned Schindler to take a trip with his family to the Adriatic coast to produce landscape paintings . In 1892 the family also traveled to the North Sea island of Sylt where Emil Schindler died . After her fathers death , Alma focused on the piano . She studied composition and counterpoint with Josef Labor , a blind organist who introduced her to a great deal of literature . At fifteen she was sent to school but attended for only a few months . As she grew older , a case of childhood measles left her with decreased hearing . Max Burckhard , friend of Emil Schindler and director of Viennas Burgtheater theater , became Almas mentor . On Almas seventeenth birthday , Burckhard gave her two laundry baskets full of books . In 1895 , Anna Schindler , Almas mother , married Carl Moll , Emil Schindlers student . In 1899 they had a daughter together named Maria . Alma met Gustav Klimt through Carl Moll . Moll and Klimt were both founding members of the Vienna Secession , a group organized for the purpose of breaking with Viennas tradition-bound Imperial Academy of the visual arts . Klimt fell in love with Alma . While she initially was interested in Klimt her desire cooled soon after . Klimt and Alma were friends until Klimts death . In fall 1900 , Alma began studying composition with Alexander von Zemlinsky . Zemlinsky and Alma fell in love and kept their relationship a secret . Alma would tease Zemlinsky about what she thought were his ugly features , saying she could easily have ten others to replace him . She also noted that to marry Zemlinsky would mean she would bring short , degenerate Jew-children into the world . As the relationship grew strained , Zemlinsky visited her less and less . On 7 November 1901 she attended Zuckerkandls salon where she began a flirtation with Gustav Mahler . In the month of November , while still in a relationship with Zemlinsky , she started an affair with Mahler . By 8 December , Mahler and Alma were secretly engaged ; however , it was not until 12 December that she wrote to Zemlinsky about her engagement . The engagement was formally announced on 23 December . Marriage to Gustav Mahler . On 9 March 1902 , she married Gustav Mahler , who was 19 years her senior and the director of the Vienna Court Opera . With him she had two daughters , Maria Anna ( 1902–1907 ) , who died of scarlet fever or diphtheria , and Anna ( 1904–1988 ) , who later became a sculptor . Gustav was not interested in Alma Mahlers composition , desiring for her to abandon composing . However , it is disputed among scholars whether or not Gustav outright forbade Alma Mahler to compose . Despite this scholarly confusion , she did artistically stifle herself and embraced the role of a loving wife and supporter of her husbands music . In June 1910 , after becoming severely depressed in the wake of Marias death , Alma began an affair with the young architect Walter Gropius ( later head of the Bauhaus ) , whom she met during a rest at a spa . Gustav sought advice from Sigmund Freud in August . The 2010 film Mahler on the Couch suggests that Gustavs consultations with Freud might have focused on his curtailing of Almas musical career as a major marital obstacle , but the actual content of them is not known . Following the emotional crisis in their marriage after Gustavs discovery of Almas affair with Gropius , Gustav began to take a serious interest in Almas musical compositions , regretting his earlier dismissive attitude and taking promotional actions . Gustav edited some of her songs ( Die stille Stadt , In meines Vaters Garten , Laue Sommernacht , Bei dir ist es traut , Ich wandle unter Blumen ) . Upon his urging , and under his guidance , Alma prepared five of her songs for publication ( they were issued in 1910 , by Gustavs own publisher , Universal Edition ) . In February 1911 , Gustav fell severely ill with an infection related to a heart defect that had been diagnosed several years earlier . He died on 18 May . Relationship with Walter Gropius . After Gustavs death , Alma did not immediately resume contact with Gropius . Between 1912 and 1914 she had a tumultuous affair with the artist Oskar Kokoschka , who created works inspired by his relationship with her , including his painting The Bride of the Wind . Kokoschkas possessiveness wore on Alma , and the emotional vicissitudes of the relationship tired them both . With the coming of World War I , Kokoschka enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian Army . Alma subsequently distanced herself from Kokoschka and resumed contact with Walter Gropius , who was also serving in combat at that time . She and Gropius married on 18 August 1915 in Berlin during one of his military leaves . They had a daughter together , Manon Gropius ( 1916–1935 ) , who grew up being friends with Maria Altmann . After Manon died of polio at the age of 18 , composer Alban Berg dedicated his newly composed Violin Concerto to her , In Memory of an Angel . Alma became pregnant and gave birth to a son , Martin Carl Johannes Gropius ( 1918–1919 ) . Gropius at first believed that the child was his , but Almas ongoing affair with Franz Werfel was common knowledge in Vienna by this time . Within a year , they agreed to a divorce . In the meantime , Martin , who had been born prematurely , developed hydrocephalus and died at the age of ten months . Almas divorce from Gropius became final in October 1920 . Relationship with Franz Werfel . While Gropiuss military duties were still keeping him absent , Alma met and began an affair with Prague-born poet and writer Franz Werfel in the fall of 1917 . She and Werfel began openly living together from that point on . However , she postponed marrying Werfel until 1929 , after which she took the name Alma Mahler-Werfel . In 1938 , following the Anschluss , Alma and Werfel , who was Jewish , were forced to flee Austria for France ; they maintained a household in Sanary-sur-Mer , on the French Riviera , from summer 1938 until spring 1940 . With the German invasion and occupation of France during World War II , and the deportation of Jews and political adversaries to Nazi concentration camps , the couple was no longer safe in France and frantically sought to secure their emigration to the United States . In Marseilles , they were contacted by Varian Fry , an American journalist and emissary of the Emergency Rescue Committee , a private American relief organization that aided refugee intellectuals and artists at that time . As exit visas could not be obtained , Fry arranged for the Werfels to journey on foot across the Pyrenees into Spain , to evade the Vichy French border officials . From Spain , Alma and Franz traveled on to Portugal . They stayed in Monte Estoril , at the Grande Hotel DItália , between 8 September and 4 October 1940 . On the same day , they boarded the S.S . Nea Hellas headed for New York City , arriving on 13 October . Eventually they settled in Los Angeles , where Alma continued her role as a hostess , bringing together Arnold Schoenberg , Igor Stravinsky , Thomas Mann , and many other artists . Werfel , who had already enjoyed moderate renown in the US as an author , achieved popular success with his novel The Song of Bernadette , which was made into a film in 1943 , and the science fiction novel , Star of the Unborn , published after his death . Werfel , who had experienced serious heart problems throughout his exile , died of a heart attack in California in 1945 . Cultural icon in the US . In 1946 , Mahler-Werfel became a U.S . citizen . Several years later she moved to New York City , where she remained a cultural figure . Leonard Bernstein , who was a champion of Gustav Mahlers music , stated in his Charles Eliot Norton lectures of 1973 that Mahler-Werfel had attended some of his rehearsals . Benjamin Britten considered her to be a living link to both Mahler and Alban Berg , and dedicated his Nocturne for Tenor and Small Orchestra to her . Death and legacy . Alma Mahler-Werfel died 11 December 1964 in New York City . She was buried on 8 February 1965 in the Grinzing Cemetery of Vienna , in the same grave as her daughter Manon Gropius and just a few steps away from her first husband Gustav Mahler . American satirist Tom Lehrer regarded her obituary as “the juiciest , spiciest , raciest obituary it has ever been my pleasure to read” . It prompted him to write the ballad , Alma , portraying her as the loveliest girl in Vienna .. . the smartest as well who became a difficult , temperamental companion to the work-absorbed Mahler , Gropius , and Werfel as each in turn came under her spell . Of her relationship to Mahler he sang : Their marriage , however , was murdah/ Hed scream to the heavens above/ Im writing Das Lied von der Erde/ and she only vants to make love ! In the 1974 film Mahler , by director Ken Russell , Gustav Mahler , while on his last train journey , remembers the important events of his life , such as his relationship with his wife , the deaths of his brother and young daughter , and his trouble with the muses . In the film , Alma was portrayed by Georgina Hale , and Gustav by Robert Powell . In 1996 , Israeli writer Joshua Sobol and Austrian director Paulus Manker created the polydrama Alma . It played in Vienna for six successive seasons , and toured with over 400 performances to Venice , Lisbon , Los Angeles , Petronell , Berlin , Semmering , Jerusalem , and Prague—all places where Mahler-Werfel had lived . The show was made into a three-part TV miniseries in 1997 . Mohammed Fairouz set the words of Alma Mahler in his song cycle Jeder Mensch . It premiered in a coupling with songs of Alma Mahler by mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey in 2011 . A treatment of Mahler-Werfels life was presented in the 2001 Bruce Beresford film Bride of the Wind , in which Alma was played by Australian actress Sarah Wynter . Gustav Mahler was portrayed by British actor Jonathan Pryce . Swiss actor Vincent Pérez portrayed Oskar Kokoschka . In 1998 , extracts from Almas diaries were published , covering the years from 1898 to 1902 , up until the time she married Mahler . In the 2001 novel The Artists Wife by Max Phillips , she tells her own story from the afterlife , focusing on her complicated relationships . In 2010 , the German filmmaker Percy Adlon and his son Felix Adlon released their film Mahler auf der Couch ( Mahler on the Couch ) , which relates Gustav Mahlers tormented relationship with his wife Alma and his meeting with Sigmund Freud in 1910 . In the films introduction , the directors stated , That it happened is fact . How it happened is fiction . Nazi-looted art . In 1999 the granddaughter of Mahler-Werfel requested that five artworks seized under the Nazis be restituted to the family . The paintings were “A summers night on the beach” ( 1902 ) by Edvard Munch and three landscapes by her great-grandfather , Emil Jakob Schindler . Alma-Werfel had loaned the paintings to the Oesterreichische Galerie before fleeing the Nazis ; Carl Moll a militant Nazi , gained control of them , selling the Munch to the Oesterreichische Galerie in 1940 and keeping the others until , fearing retribution from the Red Army , he committed suicide . Mahler-Werfels filed claims after the war but was able to recover only the Kokoschka self-portrait . When Austria modified its extremely restrictive restitution laws , the granddaughter revived the claims . Austria initially rejected the claim . After a restitution battle that lasted six decades , Austria finally agreed to restitute the stolen Munch in 2006 . The Alma Problem . Mahler-Werfels two books on Gustav Mahler influenced studies of the latter . As an articulate , well-connected , and influential woman who outlived her first husband by more than 50 years , Mahler-Werfel was for decades treated as the main authority on the mature Gustav Mahlers values , character , and day-to-day behavior , and her various publications quickly became the central source material for Mahler scholars and music-lovers alike . As scholars investigated her depiction of Mahler and her relationship with him , her accounts have increasingly been revealed as unreliable , false , and misleading . Nevertheless , the deliberate distortions have had a significant influence on several generations of scholars , interpreters , and music-lovers . Citing the serious contradictions between Almas accounts and other evidence , including her own diaries , several historians and biographers have begun to speak of the Alma Problem . According to Hugh Wood , Often she is the only witness , and the biographer has to depend on her while doubting with every sentence her capacity for telling the truth . Everything that passed through her hands must be regarded as tainted . As a composer . Alma played the piano from childhood and in her memoirs ( Mein Leben ) , reports that she first attempted composing in the beginning of 1888 on the Greek island of Corfu . She studied composition with Josef Labor beginning in 1894 or 1895 and until 1901 . She met Alexander von Zemlinsky in early 1900 , began composition lessons with him that fall , and continued as his student until her engagement with Gustav Mahler in December 1901 , after which she ceased composing . Up until that time , she had composed or sketched mostly Lieder , but also around 20 piano pieces and a small number of chamber music works , and a scene from an opera . She briefly resumed composing in 1910 , but stopped in 1915 . The chronology of her compositions is difficult to establish , because she did not date her manuscripts and destroyed many of them herself . Attempts to establish a chronological list of her works have been made by Susanne Rode-Breymann in 1999 and 2014 , and by Knud Martner in 2018 . Only a total of 17 songs by her survive . Fourteen were published during her lifetime , in three publications dated 1910 , 1915 , and 1924 . The first two volumes appeared under the name Alma Maria Schindler-Mahler , and the last volume was published as Fünf Gesänge by Alma Maria Mahler ; the cover of the 1915 set was illustrated by Oskar Kokoschka . Three additional songs were discovered in manuscript posthumously ; two of them were published in the year 2000 , edited by Dr . Susan M . Filler , and one published in 2018 , edited by Barry Millington . Her personal papers , including music manuscripts , are held at the University of Pennsylvania , the Austrian National Library in Vienna , and the Bavarian State Library in Munich . These songs have been regularly performed and recorded since the 1980s . Orchestral versions of the accompaniments have been produced . Seven songs were orchestrated by David and Colin Matthews ( published by Universal Edition ) , and all 17 songs were orchestrated by Julian Reynolds , and by Jorma Panula . Works . Compositions cited from Mahler , A Complete Songs unless otherwise noted . - Five Songs for voice and piano ( published in January 1911 ) - ( i ) Die stille Stadt ( The Quiet Town ; Richard Dehmel ) - ( ii ) In meines Vaters Garten ( In My Fathers Garden ; Erich Otto Hartleben ) Note : The original poem is entitled Französisches Wiegenlied or Volkslied , and was composed between May and August 1899 . - ( iii ) Laue Sommernacht ( Mild Summers Night ; Bierbaum ) Note : The original title of the poem is Gefunden . - ( iv ) Bei dir ist es traut ( With You It Is Pleasant ; Rilke ) - ( v ) Ich wandle unter Blumen ( I Stroll Among Flowers ; Heine ) - Four Songs for voice and piano ( published in June 1915 ) - ( i ) Licht in der Nacht ( Light in the Night ; Bierbaum ) - ( ii ) Waldseligkeit ( Woodland Bliss ; Dehmel ) - ( iii ) Ansturm ( Storm ; Dehmel ) - ( iv ) Erntelied ( Harvest Song ; Gustav Falke ) The original title is Gesang am Morgen ( Song at Dawn ) . - Five Songs for voice and piano ( published in April 1924 ) - ( i ) Hymne ( Hymn ; Novalis ) - ( ii ) Ekstase ( Ecstasy ; Bierbaum ) - ( iii ) Der Erkennende ( The Recognizer ; Werfel ) - ( iv ) Lobgesang ( Song of Praise ; Dehmel ) - ( v ) Hymne an die Nacht ( Hymn to the Night ; Novalis ) Posthumously published - Leise weht ein erstes Blühn ( Softly Drifts a First Blossom ; Rilke ) , for voice and piano ( published 2000 by Susan M . Filler ) - Kennst du meine Nächte ? ( Do You Know My Nights? ; Leo Greiner ) , for voice and piano ( published 2000 by Susan M . Filler ) - Einsamer Gang ( Lonely Walk , Leo Greiner ) , for voice and piano ( published London 2018 by Barry Millington ) Note : For a complete list of Alma Schindler-Mahlers works , see page Talk Further reading . - Alma Mahler , My Life , My Loves : Memoirs of Alma Mahler Vermilon Books , reprint edition ( February 1989 ) - Alma Mahler-Werfel , Diaries 1898–1902 ( ed . and translator , Antony Beaumont and Susanne Rode-Breymann ) Faber and Faber ( 1 February 1999 ) - Alma Mahler-Werfel , And the bridge is love Hutchinson of London , first published September 1959,third impression April 1960 - Gustav Mahler , Letters to his Wife [ 1901–11 ] . Edited by Henry-Louis de La Grange and Günther Weiss , in Collaboration with Knud Martner . First complete edition , revised and translated by Antony Beaumont ( Faber and Faber , London 2004 ) - Susanne Rode-Breymann , Die Komponistin Alma Mahler-Werfel ( Hanover , 1999 ) - Susanne Rode-Breymann , Alma Mahler-Werfel . Muse , Gattin , Witwe ( C . H . Beck , Munich 2014 ) - Susanne Keegan , The Bride of the Wind . The Life and Times of Alma Mahler-Werfel . ( Houghtin Mifflin Company , Boston 1983 ; Secker & Warburg , London 1984,348 pages ) . - Walter Gropius in Nicholas Fox Weber , The Bauhaus Group : Six Masters of Modernism ( New York : Alfred A . Knopf , 2009. ) The chapter opens with her story . pp . 1–5 ; 11–15 ; 27–42 - Jörg Rothkamm , A husband and wife who are both composers ? An unpublished song version of the so-called Erntelied ( Gesang am Morgen ) in the hand of Gustav Mahler in light of the correspondence between Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius . In : News about Mahler Research 72 , 2018 , pp . 7–34 . External links . - Finding aid to the Mahler-Werfel papers at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries - Franz Werfel Family papers at the Leo Baeck Institute , New York - Free recordings of her works at the Sophie database - , by Tom Lehrer , That Was the Year That Was ( 1965 )