author
Otfried Krzyzanowski
1886–1918
A restless Viennese bohemian and poet, he wrote with sharp feeling about hardship, longing, and life at the edges of society. Though he died young in 1918, his work still carries the intensity of early 20th-century Vienna.
1 Audiobook
Unser täglich Gift: Gedichte
by Otfried Krzyzanowski
About the author
Born in Starnberg on June 25, 1886, he became known as an Austrian bohemian poet and lyric writer. He lived in Vienna and was closely associated with its café culture, especially the circle around Café Central, where his personality became almost as memorable as his writing.
His life was marked by poverty and instability, and that struggle shaped the mood of his poetry. He published work including Was wünscht die Seele and Unser täglich Gift, writing in a voice remembered for its bitterness, sensitivity, and emotional force.
He died in Vienna on November 30, 1918, during the period of the Spanish flu. Because his life was so short and difficult, he remains a lesser-known figure, but his poems offer a vivid glimpse of literary Vienna in the years around the First World War.