Selected Members Engelbert Pernerstorfer | Victor Adler | Richard von Kralik | Friedrich Eckstein Sigfried Lipiner poet, translator, journalist It was at an 1875 lecture of the Leseverein der deutschen Studenten Wiens (Reading Society of the Viennese German Students) on Nietzsche's work that the young Siegfried Lipiner made a powerful premiere as a speaker and exponent of Nietzsche's philosophy. Soon he became a member of the Pernerstorfer Circle, many members of which also participated in the Leseverein. Before reaching the age of 20, Lipiner was hailed as a new genius by both Nietzsche and Wagner for his work Unbound Prometheus, in part a poetic embodiment of the philosophies of Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy. In the long-term, Lipiner's work did not live up to this potential, Lipiner dying unknown for the most part except by way of his lifelong friendship with Mahler. Lipiner was a significant figure in the Circle and the development of its philosophy, setting himself the task of drawing together the religious, artistic, and philosophical threads found in Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Wagner. His thinking in this regard is reflect in part in his play Adam (published 1913), which depicts a philophical search for a "return to the garden" through transcending self and attaining connection with the world-spirit. His tragedy Hippolytos (also published 1913) deals with the same theme, emphasizing the role of the Poet-Priest in the mould of Wagnerian philosophy. Engelbert Pernerstorfer | Victor Adler | Richard von Kralik | Friedrich Eckstein
|