Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

During his lifetime, Sacher-Masoch was well known as a man of letters, in particular a utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. Most of his works remain untranslated into English.

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch studied at University of Graz. The recorded working language is German. Employment is recorded with University of Graz and Lviv University. Works named in the authority record are Venus in Furs. Distinctions recorded are Knight of the Legion of Honour.

• Born — 27 January 1836 • Birthplace — Lemberg, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austrian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine) • Died — 9 March 1895 • Place of death — Lindheim near Altenstadt, German Empire • Occupation — Writer, journalist • Known for — Being the namesake of masochism • Notable Works — Venus in Furs • Relatives — Marianne Faithfull, great great niece

Sacher-Masoch was born in the city of Lemberg, the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (now Lviv, Ukraine), at the time a province of the Austrian Empire, into a Roman Catholic family. His father was an Austrian civil servant, Leopold Johann Nepomuk Ritter von Sacher, and his mother Charlotte Josepha von Masoch, a Ukrainian noblewoman. The father later combined his surname with his wife's von Masoch, at the request of her family (she was the last of the line). Sacher served as a Commissioner of the Imperial Police Forces in Lemberg, and he was recognised with a new title of Austrian nobility as Sacher-Masoch awarded by the Austrian Emperor. Leopold studied law, history and mathematics at Graz University (where he obtained a doctorate in history in 1856), and after graduating he became a lecturer there.

• Illustration — Masoch in the 1860s His early, non-fictional publications dealt mostly with Austrian history. At the same time, Masoch turned to the folklore and culture of his homeland, Galicia. Soon he abandoned lecturing and became a free man of letters. Within a decade his short stories and novels prevailed over his historical non-fiction works, though historical themes continued to imbue his fiction. Panslavist ideas were prevalent in Masoch's literary work, and he found a particular interest in depicting picturesque types among the various ethnicities that inhabited Galicia. From the 1860s to the 1880s he published a number of volumes of Jewish Short Stories, Polish Short Stories, Galician Short Stories, German Court Stories and Russian Court Stories.

• Illustration — Fanny Pistor and Sacher-Masoch Fanny Pistor was an emerging literary writer. She met Sacher-Masoch after she contacted him, under the assumed name and fictitious title of Baroness Bogdanoff, for suggestions on improving her writing to make it suitable for publication. She was the inspiration for Venus im Pelz (Venus in Furs). The erotic novel spawned the word masochism.

In 1874, Masoch wrote the novel Die Ideale unserer Zeit (The Ideals of Our Time), an attempt to give a portrait of German society during its Gründerzeit period. In his late fifties, his mental health began to deteriorate, and he spent the last years of his life under psychiatric care. According to official reports, he died in Lindheim in 1895. (Lindheim, at that time near Altenstadt, was incorporated into the municipality of Altenstadt in 1971.) It is also claimed that Masoch died in an asylum in Mannheim in 1905.

Sacher-Masoch is the great-great-uncle, through her Austrian-born mother Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso, of the late English Rock star and film actress Marianne Faithfull. She died on 30 January 2025.

• Illustration — A Sacher-Masoch compilation published in 1901 The term masochism was coined in 1886 by the Austrian psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902) in his book Psychopathia Sexualis: Sacher-Masoch was not pleased with Krafft-Ebing's assertions. Nevertheless, details of Masoch's private life were obscure until Aurora von Rümelin's memoirs, Meine Lebensbeichte (My Life Confession; 1906), were published in Berlin under the pseudonym Wanda v. Dunajew (the name of a leading character in his Venus in Furs). The following year, a French translation, Confession de ma vie (1907) by "Wanda von Sacher-Masoch", was printed in Paris by Mercure de France. An English translation of the French edition was published as The Confessions of Wanda von Sacher-Masoch (1991) by RE/Search Publications.

He also worked under the names Charlotte Arand and Zoë von Rodenbach. The authorities additionally record the heading Leopold Sacher-Masoch. His recorded language was German. He was the child of Leopold Sacher-Masoch and Caroline Josepha von Masoch. He married Wanda von Sacher-Masoch and Hulda von Sacher-Masoch. One child is recorded: Marfa von Sacher-Masoch.

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is recorded with the occupation opinion journalist. Recorded with the occupation university teacher. Recorded as journalist, writer, university teacher and historian.