Otto Erich Hartleben
Illustration — Otto Erich Hartleben. • Illustration — Grave. Otto Erich Hartleben (3 June 1864 – in Clausthal; 11 February 1905 in Salò) was a German poet and dramatist from Clausthal, known for his translation of Albert Giraud's Pierrot lunaire: rondels bergamasques (later set to music in Arnold Schoenberg's melodrama Pierrot lunaire).
Otto Erich Hartleben
Emil Orlík · Public domain
- Born
- 1864 · Clausthal.
- Died
- 1905 · Salò.
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Hanover · Kingdom of Prussia · German Empire
- Occupation
- linguist · poet · translator · writer · librettist
- Education
- Leipzig University · Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Honours
- Franz-Grillparzer-Preis
- Languages
- German
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Otto Erich Hartleben. • Illustration — Grave. Otto Erich Hartleben (3 June 1864 – in Clausthal; 11 February 1905 in Salò) was a German poet and dramatist from Clausthal, known for his translation of Albert Giraud's Pierrot lunaire: rondels bergamasques (later set to music in Arnold Schoenberg's melodrama Pierrot lunaire).
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Otto Erich Hartleben. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q76279 · wikipedia · Otto Erich Hartleben
In this article
Early life
Early life
Otto Erich Hartleben studied at Leipzig University and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The recorded working language is German. Places of work recorded in the authority are Sankt Andreasberg. Work by Otto Erich Hartleben is recorded in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Distinctions recorded are Franz-Grillparzer-Preis.
Orphaned as a child, Hartleben was brought up by his grandfather in Hanover. Among his youthful acquaintances there were Karl Henckel, Arthur Gutheil and the future industrialist and politician Alfred Hugenberg and together they published a volume of poetry Quartett in 1886. After completing his schooling in Celle in 1886 he went to study law, first in Leipzig, where he got to know Hermann Conradi and Adolf Bartels, and later in Berlin. He studied for the civil service in Stolberg (Harz) and in Magdeburg. Giving up his legal studies, he returned to Berlin where he lived as a freelance writer, eventually moving to Munich in 1901. After the death of his grandfather in 1893, Hartleben inherited 80,000 marks and on 2 December married his lifelong companion, ex-waitress "little mop" Selma Hesse.
Death
Death
Hartleben died in Salò, Italy.
Works
Works
• "Studententagebuch", poetry, 1886 • "Die Serényi", stories, 1887 • "Angele", comedy, 1891 • "Hanna Jagert", comedy, 1893 • "Die Geschichte vom abgerissenen Knopfe", stories, 1893 • "Ein Ehrenwort", drama, 1894 • "Meine Verse", poetry, 1895 • "Vom gastfreien Pastor", stories, 1895 • "Der römische Maler", novella, 1898 • "Ein wahrhaft guter Mensch", comedy, 1899 • "Rosenmontag”, tragedy, 1900 • "Von reifen Früchten. Meiner Verse zweiter Teil", poetry, 1902 • "Liebe kleine Mama", stories, 1904 • "Diogenes", comedy, 1905 • "Im grünen Baum zur Nachtigall", Studentenstück, 1905 • "Das Ehefest", novella, 1906 • Tagebuch 1906 • Aphorismen, edited by van den Trelde 1920
Filmography
Filmography
• The Serenyi, directed by Alfred Halm (1918, based on the novella Die Serényi) • Rosenmontag, directed by Rudolf Meinert (1924, based on the play Rosenmontag) • Love's Carnival, directed by Hans Steinhoff (1930, based on the play Rosenmontag) • Sommerliebe, directed by Erich Engel (1942, based on the novella Die Serényi) • Love's Carnival, directed by Willy Birgel (1955, based on the play Rosenmontag)
Identity
Identity
Otto Erich Hartleben is recorded as linguist, poet, translator, writer and librettist.
Otto Erich Hartleben (1864–1905)
Hoffotograf E. Bieber, Berlin und Hamburg · Northeimer Datenbank Deutsches Gedicht
Angelo Jank Illustration zu Otto Erich Hartleben Grübchen in Simplicissimus 1896, Heft 2
Angelo Jank · Albert Soergel: Dichtung und Dichter der Zeit: eine Schilderung der deutschen Literatur der letzten Jahrzehnte, 1916
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1864
Otto Erich Hartleben born at Clausthal.
1905
Otto Erich Hartleben died at Salò.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Clausthal.
Birth place
Salò.
Death place
Work and reception
In 1900 he had a resounding success with his "officer's tragedy" Rosenmontag (Carnival Monday) which deals with an ill-fated affair between a simple girl and a young officer from an old military family. He used the proceeds to purchase the Villa Halkyone in Salò on Lake Garda. Here he founded in 1903 the Halkyone Academy for the Pure Sciences, which included among its members Peter Behrens, Otto Julius Bierbaum, Franz Blei, Gerhart Hauptmann, Alfred Kubin, Emil Orlik and Ferdinand Pfohl, and which boasted just two rules: "Membership of the Halkyone Academy confers neither duties nor rights", and "everything else is governed by the spirit of the Halkyone community." Hartleben's legendary reputation in turn-of-century letters is due chiefly to the many artistic groups he founded or contributed to, from the Bavarian Bohemian Beer Brotherhood at school in Celle (1885) to the Menschenclub (People's Club) in Magdeburg (1890), the Karlsbad Idealists' Club (1891), the Verbrechertisch (Rogues' Table) in Berlin (1896), the Berlin Naturalists' Society known as Durch (Through), the Berlin drama movement Freie Bühne (Free Stage), the Berlin Free Literary Society, the Leipzig "Auguren College", not to mention the lively interest he took in the Friedrichshagener Dichterkreis (Friedrichshagen Poets' Circle). He also co-produced the weekly journal Die Jugend (The Youth), in which he made humorous jibes at contemporary society and its morals. One of his key characters was Serenissimus, the gone-to-seed ruler of an imaginary peppercorn principality. He is especially noted today for his translations of other writers' poetic works, in particular of Albert Giraud's Pierrot lunaire: rondels bergamasques, selections from which were later set to music in Arnold Schoenberg's melodrama Pierrot lunaire.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q76279: Otto Erich HartlebenWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Citizenship
1- German EmpirePlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
Studied at
1- Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Otto Erich Hartleben received Franz-Grillparzer-Preis. Connected to 2 other published records in the VALÉORINE Encyclopedia.
Recognition and collections
Work by Otto Erich Hartleben is
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Within the Encyclopedia
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,377 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Ottla KafkaAuthor
- Otto BauerAuthor
- Otto BraunAuthor
- Otto BuchingerAuthor
- Otto Eugen SchulzAuthor
- Otto FabriciusAuthor
- Otto FlakeAuthor
- Otto Friedrich GruppeAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Otto Erich Hartleben?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.