Biography

Rosegger had only irregular schooling. During his childhood and youth he worked as a guardian. He learned to read and write from a retired school teacher. Between 1860 and 1863 he completed an apprenticeship as a tailor. Rosegger acquired his education self-taught. At the age of 16 he tried to publish his first literary works in the "Grazer Zeitung". In 1864 he was given an apprenticeship as a bookseller in Laibach. From 1865 to 1869 he received training at the Academy of Commerce and Industry. With his first book successes, Peter Rosegger decided to pursue writing full-time.

The well-known Prague publisher Gustav Heckenast not only published Rosegger's works, but was also his liberal-minded mentor. In the years 1870 and 1872 the writer made various trips to Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy. In 1867 he met Adalbert Stifter during a visit. Peter Rosegger was a prolific writer. Almost all of his short stories are about the home landscape in Styria and its farming society. The writer traces these in an idealizing manner and equipped with archetypes. One of his basic keywords is "forest", which can be found in the headings and subtitles of the issues as well as in the theming of the content.

Rosegger often talks about his childhood in a transfiguring way. In 1876 Rosegger moved to Graz. There he became editor of the monthly magazine "Heimgarten". With his stories of country life he follows the tradition of Berthold Auerbach's village history. They are connected with the intention of enlightenment and popular education. The social democratic-pacifist-minded Peter Rosegger also traced this intention in his works. In addition, the Austrian writer Ludwig Anzengruber was a literary role model for him from whom he was inspired. Faced with the threat to peasant culture and forest landscapes, Rosegger developed an ideology of homeland and peasantry that is easily open to abusive interpretations.

Rosegger wrote many of his works in dialect. The writer saw country life and the forest landscape as an alternative to modern industrial society. Rosegger often published his own works under the pseudonym "Petri Katten Feier". After the turn of the century, the writer received numerous international honors, including honorary doctorates. His autobiographical titles such as "The Writings of the Forest Schoolmaster" (1875) and "Waldheimat" (1877) as well as the stories "Stories from Styria" (1871), "Stories from the Alps" (1873) and "When I was still Forest farmer's boy was" (1902).

His other works include titles such as "Zither and Dulcimer" (1870), "In der Einöde" (1872), "Jakob the Last" (1889), "Idylls from a Ending World" (1899), "Erdsegen" (1900 ), "World Poison" (1903) or "Collected Works" (1913-1916).

Peter Rosegger died on June 26, 1918 in Krieglach in Styria.
- IMDb mini biography by: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth