Editing Rainer Maria Rilke (section)

===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>