Young Vienna
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Young Vienna (Jung-Wien) was a society of fin de siècle writers who met in Vienna's Café Griensteidl and other nearby coffeehouses from 1890 until 1897. Their work is often broadly categorized as "Viennese coffeehouse literature" or as part of a larger Wiener Moderne movement that affected many disciplines.
The group turned away from the prevailing Naturalism of the time and experimented with various facets of Modernism, including Symbolism and Impressionism. Members were known for their indolence and decadence, traits satirized by Karl Kraus in his 1897 essay Die Demolierte Literatur (Demolished Literature).
Hermann Bahr was considered the group's spokesman. Other members included Arthur Schnitzler, Felix Dörmann, Peter Altenberg, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Felix Salten, Raoul Auernheimer, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Stefan Zweig, and, though he would later distance himself from the group, Karl Kraus.
Though little work was accomplished at the café, the writers exchanged manuscripts, criticism, and often mistresses.
The group dissolved on January 20, 1897, a day before Café Griensteidl was to be demolished. According to Schnitzler's diary, Felix Salten, angry with a negative review Kraus had given him, attacked the young journalist in the café. Many of the members continued to meet at the nearby Café Central.
