Franz Theodor Csokor


Franz Theodor Csokor was an Austrian author and dramatist, particularly well known for his Expressionist dramas. His most successful and best-known piece is 3. November 1918, about the downfall of the Austria-Hungary monarchy. In many of his works Csokor deals with themes of antiquity and Christianity.

Life

Csokor was born into a respectable middle-class family in Vienna.. He started on a course of art history, but did not finish it. From early on he felt a calling to be a dramatist, and composed his first pieces before World War I. He spent 1913/14 in Saint Petersburg.
During World War I he was a soldier, and was latterly employed in the War Archives
From 1922 to 1928 Csokor was the dramaturgist at the Raimundtheater and at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna.
From 1933 he was already a decided opponent of National Socialism and signed a document saying so at the PEN congress in Dubrovnik. In 1938, after the annexation of Austria to Germany, he emigrated voluntarily, and after travelling via Poland, Romania and Hungary, ended up in Italy in 1944, where he lived in Rome. He worked for the BBC and returned to Vienna in 1946 in British uniform.
In 1947 Csokor became president of the Austrian PEN Club, with which he remained actively associated until well into his old age. In 1968 he also became vice-president of the International PEN.
As a convinced humanist Csokor spoke up in his dramas for peace, freedom and human rights. His creative life was also closely connected with the Labour movement.
Csokor was awarded the title of Professor.
He died in Vienna, and is buried in a grave of honour in the Zentralfriedhof. The Csokorgasse, a street in Vienna, was named after him in 1975. In 1994 the Austrian Post Office published a special stamp in his honour.

Decorations and awards

Theatrical pieces