Editing Rainer Maria Rilke (section)

==Biography==
===Early life (1875–1896)===
[[File:Rilke 1878.PNG|thumb|Rilke, circa 1878–1879]]
He was born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke in [[Prague]], capital of [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] (then ruled by [[Austria-Hungary]], now capital of the Czech Republic). His childhood and youth in Prague were not always happy. His father, Josef Rilke (1838–1906), found employment as a railway official after an unsuccessful military career. His mother, Sophie ("Phia") Entz (1851–1931), was from a well-to-do family in Prague, the Entz-Kinzelbergers, who lived at Herrengasse (Panská) 8, where René spent many of his early years.

The relationship between Phia and her only son was coloured by her mourning for an earlier infant daughter who died within one week. During Rilke's early years, Phia acted as if she sought to recover the lost daughter by treating Rilke as if he were a girl. According to Rilke, he had to wear "fine clothes" and "was a plaything [for his mother], like a big doll".{{sfn|Prater|1986|p=5}}{{sfn|Freedman|1998|p=9}}<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/lifeofapoet.htm "Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke"] at [[The Washington Post]].</ref>{{efn|name=Dress|From the mid-16th century until the early 20th century, young boys in the [[Western world]] were [[Breeching (boys)|unbreeched]] and wore [[gown]]s or [[dress]]es until an age that varied between two and eight.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/collections/clothing/boys-dress/| title = "Boy's Dress", V&A Museum of childhood, accessed June 27, 2019}}</ref>}} His parents' marriage ended in 1884.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

His parents enrolled the poetically and artistically talented youth in a military academy in [[Sankt Pölten]], Lower Austria. He attended classes from 1886 until 1891, but left due to illness. He then moved to [[Linz]], and entered a trade school. During this time he lived with Hans Drouot (publisher and owner of the printing and publishing company Jos. Feichtingers Erben) at Graben 19 on the 3rd floor.

Expelled in May 1892, the 16-year-old returned to Prague, where, for three years, he was tutored for the university entrance exam, which he passed in 1895. He took classes in literature, art history, and philosophy in [[Charles University#Split into Czech and German universities|Prague]],{{sfn|Freedman|1998|p=36}} until 1896 when he left school and moved to Munich.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rainer-Maria-Rilke|title=Rainer Maria Rilke {{!}} Austrian-German poet|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-07-17|language=en}}</ref>

===Munich and Saint Petersburg===
Rilke met and fell in love with the widely travelled and intellectual woman of letters [[Lou Andreas-Salomé]] in 1897 in Munich. He changed his first name from "René" to "Rainer" at Salomé's urging because she thought that name to be more masculine, forceful and Germanic.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Facts on File Companion to World Poetry: 1900 to the Present|first=R. Victoria|last=Arana|page=377|publisher=Infobase|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8160-6457-1}}</ref> His relationship with this married woman, with whom he undertook two extensive trips to Russia, lasted until 1900. Even after their separation, Salomé continued to be Rilke's most important confidante until the end of his life. Having trained from 1912 to 1913 as a [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]] with [[Sigmund Freud]], she shared her knowledge of psychoanalysis with Rilke.

In 1898, Rilke undertook a journey of several weeks to Italy. The following year he travelled with Lou and her husband, [[Friedrich Carl Andreas]], to Moscow where he met the novelist [[Leo Tolstoy]]. Between May and August 1900, a second journey to Russia, accompanied only by Lou, again took him to Moscow and [[Saint Petersburg]], where he met the family of [[Boris Pasternak]] and [[Spiridon Drozhzhin]], a peasant poet. Author Anna A. Tavis cites the cultures of Bohemia and Russia as the key influences on Rilke's poetry and consciousness.<ref>Anna A. Tavis. ''Rilke's Russia: A Cultural Encounter''. [[Northwestern University Press]], 1997. {{ISBN|0-8101-1466-6}}. p.&nbsp;1.</ref>

In 1900, Rilke stayed at the artists' colony at [[Worpswede]]. (Later, his portrait would be painted by the proto-expressionist [[Paula Modersohn-Becker]], whom he got to know at Worpswede.) It was here that he got to know the sculptor [[Clara Westhoff]], whom he married the following year. Their daughter Ruth (1901–1972) was born in December 1901.

===Paris (1902–1910)===
[[File:Paula Modersohn-Becker 016.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Paula Modersohn-Becker]] (1876–1907), an early expressionist painter, became acquainted with Rilke in Worpswede and Paris, and painted his portrait in 1906.]]
In the summer of 1902, Rilke left home and travelled to Paris to write a [[monograph]] on the sculptor [[Auguste Rodin]]. Before long his wife left their daughter with her parents and joined Rilke there. The relationship between Rilke and Clara Westhoff continued for the rest of his life; a mutually-agreed-upon effort towards a divorce was bureaucratically hindered by the fact that Rilke was a Catholic, albeit a non-practising one.

At first, Rilke had a difficult time in Paris, an experience that he called upon in the first part of his only novel, ''[[The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge]]''. At the same time his encounter with modernism was very stimulating: Rilke became deeply involved with the sculpture of Rodin and then the work of [[Paul Cézanne]]. For a time, he acted as Rodin's secretary, also lecturing and writing a long essay on Rodin and his work. Rodin taught him the value of objective observation and, under this influence, Rilke dramatically transformed his poetic style from the subjective and sometimes incantatory language of his earlier work into something quite new in European literature. The result was the ''[[New Poems]]'', famous for the "[[Dinggedicht|thing-poems]]" expressing Rilke's rejuvenated artistic vision. During these years, Paris increasingly became the writer's main residence.

The most important works of the Paris period were ''Neue Gedichte'' (''New Poems'') (1907), ''Der Neuen Gedichte Anderer Teil'' (''Another Part of the New Poems'') (1908), the two "Requiem" poems (1909), and the novel ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', started in 1904 and completed in January 1910.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/rainer-maria-rilke|title=Rainer Maria Rilke|last=Rilke|first=Rainer Maria|date=2000-07-12|website=Rainer Maria Rilke|language=en|access-date=2017-07-17}}</ref>

During the later part of this decade, Rilke spent extended periods in [[Ronda]], the famous bullfighting centre in southern Spain, where he kept a permanent room at the Hotel Reina Victoria from December 1912 to February 1913.<ref>[http://www.zeit.de/1983/07/mit-rilke-in-ronda "Mit Rilke in Ronda"] by {{Interlanguage link|Volker Mauersberger|de}}, ''[[Die Zeit]]'', 11 February 1983 {{in lang|de}}</ref><ref>[http://www.andalucia.com/ronda/hotelreina.htm "Hotel Catalonia Reina Victoria"], andalucia.com</ref>

===Duino and the First World War (1911–1919)===
[[File:Castello di Duino 0904.jpg|thumb|[[Duino Castle]] near Trieste, Austria, was where Rilke began writing the ''[[Duino Elegies]]'' in 1912, recounting that he heard the famous first line as a voice in the wind while walking along the cliffs and that he wrote it quickly in his notebook.]]
Between October 1911 and May 1912, Rilke stayed at the Castle [[Duino]], near [[Trieste]], home of [[Czech branch of the House of Thurn and Taxis#Alexander von Thurn und Taxis|Princess Marie]] of [[Thurn und Taxis]]. There, in 1912, he began the poem cycle called the ''[[Duino Elegies]]'', which would remain unfinished for a decade because of a long-lasting creativity crisis. Rilke had developed an admiration for [[El Greco]] as early as 1908, so he visited [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]] during the winter of 1912/13 to see his paintings. It has been suggested that El Greco's manner of depicting angels influenced the conception of the angel in the ''Duino Elegies''.<ref>Fatima Naqvi-Peters. ''A Turning Point in Rilke's Evolution: The Experience of El Greco''. The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, Vol. 72, Is. 4, pp. 344-362, 1997.</ref> The outbreak of [[World War I]] surprised Rilke during a stay in Germany. He was unable to return to Paris, where his property was confiscated and auctioned. He spent the greater part of the war in Munich. From 1914 to 1916 he had a turbulent affair with the painter [[Lou Albert-Lasard]]. Rilke was called up at the beginning of 1916 and had to undertake basic training in Vienna. Influential friends interceded on his behalf&nbsp;– he was transferred to the War Records Office and discharged from the military on 9 June 1916. He returned to Munich, interrupted by a stay at {{Interlanguage link|Hertha Koenig|de|lt=Hertha Koenig's}} manor {{ill|Gut Bockel|de}} in Westphalia. The traumatic experience of military service, a reminder of the horrors of the military academy, almost completely silenced him as a poet.<ref>"An Kurt Wolf, 28. März 1917." S. Stefan Schank: ''Rainer Maria Rilke.'' pp. 119–121.</ref>

===Switzerland and Muzot (1919–1926)===
[[File:Maison rilke.jpg|thumb|Château de Muzot in Veyras, Switzerland, was where Rilke completed writing the ''Duino Elegies'' in "a savage creative storm" in February 1922.]]
[[File:Rilke and Klossowska at Chateau Muzot 1923.jpg|thumb|left|Rilke and Klossowska at Chateau Muzot 1923.]]
On 11 June 1919, Rilke travelled from Munich to Switzerland. He met Polish-German painter [[Baladine Klossowska]], with whom he was in a relationship to his death in 1926. The outward motive was an invitation to lecture in Zurich, but the real reason was the wish to escape the post-war chaos and take up his work on the ''Duino Elegies'' once again. The search for a suitable and affordable place to live proved to be very difficult. Among other places, Rilke lived in Soglio, [[Locarno]] and Berg am Irchel. It was only in mid-1921 that he was able to find a permanent residence in the Château de Muzot in the commune of [[Veyras, Switzerland|Veyras]], close to [[Sierre]] in Valais. In an intense creative period, Rilke completed the ''Duino Elegies'' in several weeks in February 1922. Before and after this period, Rilke rapidly wrote both parts of the poem cycle ''[[Sonnets to Orpheus]]'' containing 55 entire sonnets. Together, these two have often been taken as constituting the high points of Rilke's work. In May 1922, Rilke's patron [[Werner Reinhart]] bought and renovated Muzot so that Rilke could live there rent-free.{{sfn|Freedman|1998|p=505}}

During this time, Reinhart introduced Rilke to his protégée, the Australian violinist [[Alma Moodie]].<ref name=Cornell>{{cite web| url = http://people.cornell.edu/pages/hd11/RilkeMusicMetaph.html| title = R. M. Rilke: Music as Metaphor}}</ref> Rilke was so impressed with her playing that he wrote in a letter: "What a sound, what richness, what determination. That and the ''Sonnets to Orpheus'', those were two strings of the same voice. And she plays mostly [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]! Muzot has received its musical christening..."<ref name=Cornell /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://picture-poems.com/rilke/rilke-moodie-reinhardt.html |title=Photo and description |publisher=Picture-poems.com |access-date=2012-06-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://picture-poems.com/rilke/rilkebio.html |title=Rainer Maria Rilke: a brief biographical overview |publisher=Picture-poems.com |access-date=2012-06-07}}</ref>

From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly struggled with health problems that necessitated many long stays at a [[sanatorium]] in [[Territet]] near [[Montreux]] on [[Lake Geneva]]. His long stay in Paris between January and August 1925 was an attempt to escape his illness through a change in location and living conditions. Despite this, numerous important individual poems appeared in the years 1923–1926 (including ''Gong'' and ''Mausoleum''), as well as his abundant lyrical work in French. His book of French poems ''Vergers'' was published in 1926.

In 1924, {{ill|Erika Mitterer|de}} began writing poems to Rilke, who wrote back with approximately 50 poems of his own and called her verse a ''Herzlandschaft'' (landscape of the heart).<ref name="KohlRobertson2006">{{cite book|author1=Katrin Maria Kohl|author2=Ritchie Robertson|title=A History of Austrian Literature 1918-2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_BD-rogiJkC&pg=PA130|year=2006|publisher=Camden House|isbn=978-1-57113-276-5|pages=130ff}}</ref> This was the only time Rilke had a productive poetic collaboration throughout all his work.<ref name="LeederVilain2010">{{cite book|author1=Karen Leeder|author2=Robert Vilain|title=The Cambridge Companion to Rilke|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCTzW70X0yYC&pg=PA24|date=21 January 2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-87943-9|pages=24ff}}</ref> Mitterer visited Rilke in November 1925.<ref name="RilkeVilain2011">{{cite book|author1=Rainer Maria Rilke|author2=Robert Vilain|author3=Susan Ranson|title=Selected Poems: With Parallel German Text|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A8T2Q-6Lg2EC&pg=PA343|date=14 April 2011|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-956941-0|pages=343ff}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Shun Suzuki |title=Anruf aus Liebe |journal=Der literarische Zaunkönig |date=2005 |page=29 |url=https://www.erika-mitterer.org/dokumente/ZK2005-1/suzuki_1-2005.pdf |language=German}}</ref> In 1950 her ''Correspondence in Verse'' with Rilke was published and received much praise.<ref name="Mitterer2004">{{cite book|author=Erika Mitterer|title=The prince of darkness|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhNmAAAAMAAJ|year=2004|publisher=Ariadne Press|page=663|isbn=978-1-57241-134-0}}</ref>

Rilke supported the [[Russian Revolution]] in 1917 as well as the [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]] in 1919.{{sfn|Freedman|1998|pages=419–420}} He became friends with [[Ernst Toller]] and mourned the deaths of [[Rosa Luxemburg]], [[Kurt Eisner]], and [[Karl Liebknecht]].{{sfn|Freedman|1998|pages=421–422}} He confided that of the five or six newspapers he read daily, those on the [[Far-left politics|far left]] came closest to his own opinions.<ref name="Freedman422">{{harvnb|Freedman|1998|page=422}}</ref> He developed a reputation for supporting left-wing causes and thus, out of fear for his own safety, became more reticent about politics after the Bavarian Republic was crushed by the right-wing [[Freikorps]].<ref name="Freedman422" /> In January and February 1926, Rilke wrote three letters to the Mussolini-adversary Aurelia Gallarati Scotti in which he praised [[Benito Mussolini]] and described fascism as a healing agent.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-41757535.html "Rilke-Briefe: Nirgends ein Führer"] {{in lang|de}}, ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' (21/1957). 22 May 1957. Retrieved 28 January 2014.</ref><ref>"Elegien gegen die Angstträume des Alltags" by [[Hellmuth Karasek]] {{in lang|de}}. ''Der Spiegel'' (47/1981). 11 November 1981; Karasek calls Rilke a friend of the Fascists.</ref><ref>Rainer Maria Rilke, ''Lettres Milanaises 1921–1926''. Edited by Renée Lang. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1956{{Page needed|date=June 2012}}</ref>

===Death and burial===
[[File:GrabRilke.JPG|thumb|Rilke's grave in [[Raron]], Switzerland]]
Shortly before his death, Rilke's illness was diagnosed as [[leukemia]]. He suffered ulcerous sores in his mouth, pain troubled his stomach and intestines, and he struggled with increasingly low spirits.<ref Name="NYT2000" /> Open-eyed, he died in the arms of his doctor on 29 December 1926, in the Valmont Sanatorium in Switzerland. He was buried on 2 January 1927, in the [[Raron]] cemetery to the west of [[Visp]].<ref Name="NYT2000">[https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/g/gass-rilke.html Excerpt from "Reading Rilke – Reflections on the Problems of Translation"] by [[William H. Gass]] (1999) {{ISBN|0-375-40312-4}}; featured in ''[[The New York Times]]'' 2000. Accessed 18 August 2010 {{Subscription required}}</ref>

Rilke had chosen as his own epitaph this poem:
<poem lang="de" style="margin-left:2em; float:left;">Rose, oh reiner Widerspruch, Lust,
Niemandes Schlaf zu sein unter soviel
Lidern.</poem>
<poem style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">Rose, o pure contradiction, desire
to be no one's sleep beneath so many
lids.</poem>{{clear|left}}

A myth developed surrounding his death and roses. It was said: "To honour a visitor, the Egyptian beauty [[Nimet Eloui Bey]], Rilke gathered some roses from his garden. While doing so, he pricked his hand on a thorn. This small wound failed to heal, grew rapidly worse, soon his entire arm was swollen, and his other arm became affected as well", and so he died.<ref Name="NYT2000" />