Hans Carl Artmann (12 June 1921 – 4 December 2000), also known as Ib Hansen, was an Austrian poet and writer, most popular for his early poems written in
Viennese (med ana schwoazzn dintn, 1958), which however, never after were to be the focus of his oeuvre.
Life and work
Artmann was born in
Vienna as the son of shoe maker Johann Artmann and his wife Marie (née Schneider). After growing up in Vienna and attending Volks- & Hauptschule, he worked as an office intern for three years; in 1940, he was
conscripted during
World War II, and transferred to a punishment battalion after suffering a war wound in 1941.
Having grown up trilingually, Artmann had an interest in language from an early age on; in 1947, his first publications appeared on radio and in the newspaper Neue Wege. He joined the
Art-Club in 1951, and worked with
Gerhard Rühm and
Konrad Bayer from 1952 on. The same year, he also founded the so-called
Wiener Gruppe of
avantgarde poets, which he left in 1958.
Starting in 1954, Artmann travelled Europe extensively; he stayed in
Sweden from 1961 to 1965, living in
Stockholm,
Lund and
Malmö, then went to live in
Berlin until 1969, to settle down in
Salzburg in 1972. As
Ib Hansen he had sung at DMGP 1966 with the song "
Lille Veninde" placing equal 3rd with 9 points.
He was a founding member of the Anti P.E.N. club in 1973; later that year, he became and stayed president of the Grazer Autorenversammlung until leaving the organization in 1978.
Artmann wrote a number of humorous stories, including parodies of Dracula, (dracula dracula, 1966),
Frankenstein, (Frankenstein in Sussex, 1969) [1]
and
Hollywood fantasy films ("In the Gulf of Carpentaria").[2]
He also translated one volume of the
Asterix series into Viennese language, Da Legionäa Asterix, which was released in 1999.
H. C. Artmann died from a
heart attack on 4 December 2000 in Vienna at the age 79. He was cremated at
Feuerhalle Simmering, where his ashes are also buried.