The ACF London is delighted to present an evening dedicated to the life and literary legacy of Maria Lazar (1895–1948), a remarkable Austrian writer whose powerful and visionary work is currently experiencing a much-deserved international rediscovery. This special event, taking place in collaboration with DVB Verlag, will focus on the newly published short story collection Gedankenstrahlen, while also revisiting two of Lazar’s most significant works, Leben verboten! and Viermal Ich. As part of the evening, the short story Miss Links & Co will be presented in the original as well as an English translation by Eleanor Updegraff.
Gedankenstrahlen brings together previously unknown or unpublished masterpieces from the late 1930s and early 1940s, offering fresh insight into Lazar’s literary range and artistic depth. Her writing is marked by sharp observation, dark humour, and a deep sensitivity to political change, social pressures and human resilience - themes that feel strikingly relevant today. The evening also celebrates the forthcoming English translation of Viermal Ich, set to be published by Seagull Press in 2026.
Joining this celebration are key figures involved in the revival of Lazar’s work: Albert C. Eibl, publisher of Das vergessene Buch (DVB Verlag), whose dedication has brought Lazar’s writing back into literary focus; Kathleen Dunmore, Maria Lazar’s granddaughter, who has played a central role in preserving and sharing her grandmother’s legacy; and renowned actor Philipp Hauß, who will bring selected texts to life in a reading. The evening will be moderated by Andrea Capovilla, director of the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature & Culture.
We are also delighted to welcome Veronika Zwerger, director of the Österreichische Exilbibliothek (The Austrian Archives for Exile Studies) at the Literaturhaus Wien. She will offer a brief introduction to the work of the archive as well as the literary estate of Maria Lazar, which was donated in 2022 by Lazar’s grandchildren.
Join us for this unique event honouring one of Austria’s most powerful and distinctive literary voices of the 20th century!
This reading is accessible for non-German speakers.
Photo: Maria Lazar in front of book shelves portrait © Exilbibliothek Literaturhaus Wien
Maria Lazar (1895–1948) was born into a Jewish upper-middle-class family in Vienna. She attended the renowned girls’ school founded by Eugenia Schwarzwald, where she came into contact with many leading figures of the Viennese cultural scene of the time, including Adolf Loos, Hermann Broch, and Egon Friedell. As a committed journalist, she began writing in the early 1920s not only for prominent Viennese newspapers but also for Scandinavian and Swiss publications. It was only in 1930, when she adopted the “Nordic” pseudonym Esther Grenen, that she achieved the literary recognition she had long deserved - almost overnight. This success, however, was cut short by Hitler’s rise to power.
In response to the increasingly repressive political climate, Lazar left Germany with her daughter in 1933 and went into exile in Denmark, initially alongside the family of Bertolt Brecht. She had been living in Berlin since 1927, having moved following her divorce from Friedrich Strindberg. In 1939, she fled to Sweden. Following a long and incurable illness, she ended her life voluntarily in 1948.
Lazar’s bold and wide-ranging literary work had already faded into obscurity before the end of the Second World War. Since 2014, her novels, plays, poems, and short stories have been steadily rediscovered and republished by the Viennese publishing house Das vergessene Buch.
Albert C. Eibl, born in 1990 in Munich and raised in Italy, is a publisher, literary scholar, and author. After studying German philology and philosophy in Zurich, he founded the Viennese publishing house Das vergessene Buch, for which he was awarded the prestigious Bruno Kreisky Prize in 2024. Most recently, he edited Die vergessenen Theaterstücke (The Forgotten Plays) by Maria Lazar, with a postscript by Simon Strauß. In 2024, he also published his first essay collection Ästhetik des Ungehorsams. Interventionen im digitalen Zeitalter (Aesthetics of Disobedience: Interventions in the Digital Age), co-authored with Juhani Steinmann, with Wieser Verlag. This was followed in 2025 by his debut poetry collection Mond und Meereswoge (Moon and Sea Wave). In autumn, he is set to publish Romantisiert euch! (Romanticise Yourselves!), a neo-romantic manifesto, with Braumüller. Eibl is a member of the Austrian PEN Club and serves as the chair of the Ernst and Friedrich Georg Jünger Society.
Kathleen Dunmore is the granddaughter of Austrian writer Maria Lazar and lives in Nottingham. In 2022, she and her family donated Lazar’s literary estate - including a number of previously unpublished poems - to the Austrian Exile Library at the Literaturhaus Wien. These rediscovered texts became the starting point for Poetry from Exile: Finding Love and Meaning when Living with Displacement, an anthology edited by Dunmore and launched in November 2023 at the Nottingham Mechanics Institute. The book brings together contributions from 14 poets from the Nottingham writing community, reflecting on exile, identity, political struggle, and the search for love and belonging.
Photo © Christina Körte
Philipp Hauss studied acting at the Max Reinhardt-Seminar and joined the Burgtheater Vienna in 2002 at the age of 22 years. From 2026 on he will be part of the new artistic leadership team of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. He has worked with Luc Bondy, Peter Zadek, Andrea Breth, Nicolas Stemann, Marie Schleef, Robert Icke, Dead Centre, Katie Mitchell and many others. In Lucia Bihler’s adaptation of Lazar’s „Die Eingeborenen von Maria Blut“ he played Doctor Lohmann. The production was selected to be one of the ten most exciting German-language theatre productions in 2023.
Veronika Zwerger and Kathleen Dunmore, Nottingham 2022 © Literaturhaus Wien
Veronika Zwerger, graduate of History and Cultural & Social Anthropology at the University of Vienna. Has been working for the Literaturhaus Wien since 2001, head of the Austrian Archives for Exile Studies since 2016. From 2011 to 2019 co-organiser of the International Literature Festival Erich Fried Tage. Since 2017 managing director of the Society of Friends of the Austrian Exile Library, since 2022 member of the advisory board of the Gesellschaft für Exilforschung e.V. as well as the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Exilforschung. Publications, exhibitions and conferences focussing on Austrian emigration and exile. Most recently: Jimmy Berg. Ich will vom Leben 100%. Komponist, Texter, Journalist (editor, 2023); Die Erinnerung wohnt in allen Dingen. 30 Jahre Österreichische Exilbibliothek (exhibition curator and catalogue editor, 2023); „Hope that we can meet. I still have a few things that may be of interest.“ Aufbau einer Sammlung und einer Beziehung (essay, 2023); Von Grünfeld zu Grenville. Eine Wiener Familien- und Firmengeschichte (essay, 2024). Conception of several workshops for pupils and students on flight and exile, as well as guided walks in Vienna and the event programme of the Austrian Archives for Exile Studies at the Literaturhaus Wien, i. e. Widerständiges Schreiben. Lili Körber. Literatur, Politik und Exil (conference together with Burcu Dogramaci and Günther Sandner, 2024).
