Mahler Trivia, Week Two

Alma Schindler married Gustav Mahler in 1902, when she was 21 and he was 42. After Gustav died, she married two of the famous men above. Can you pick which two?

❖     Walter Gropius – Architect

❖     Oskar Kokoschka – Painter

❖     Sigmund Freud – Psychoanalyst

❖     Thomas Mann – Novelist

❖     Franz Werfel – Novelist

Scroll down for the answer and to learn more…

Alma Schindler was a famous Viennese beauty, a not-bad composer in her own right, and later a sculptor. Her marriage to Gustav Mahler was passionate but rocky, partly because he forbade her to write music. This sent Alma to the couch of Dr. Sigmund Freud. He analyzed her, but never became her lover. Thomas Mann, author of Death in Venice, knew both Alma and Gustav well. Mahler died in 1911. Alma then became the muse and lover of Oskar Kokoschka. Eventually she married Walter Gropius of Bauhaus fame, who later in life designed New York’s Met Life building. Alma eventually divorced Gropius and married Franz Werfel, author of The Song of Bernadette.  Alma and Franz emigrated to the US before WWII. He died in 1945, and she died in 1964. 

Here is her obituary from The New York Times.  This brilliant “Art Song” tells her story.   There’s also the movie Bride of the Wind available on Prime Video, and a 2019 biography, Passionate Spirit.   The list goes on . . .

Further Reading:

“An unsparing portrait of Alma Mahler as wife, mistress and muse” via Chicago Tribune

Come hear our orchestra perform Mahler’s 5th on November 5th!