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.
He earned several awards for his achievements in literature during his lifetime, including the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1974, the title of honorary doctor from the University of Salzburg in 1991 and the Georg-Büchner Preis for literature in 1997.
Artmann wrote a number of humorous stories, included parodies of Dracula,(dracula dracula, 1966), Frankenstein, (Frankenstein in Sussex, 1969) and Hollywood fantasy films ("In the Gulf of Carpentaria").
Artmann was a prolific translator; he rendered Edward Lear, Lars Gustafsson, Daisy Ashford and H.P. Lovecraft into German.
He also translated one volume of the Asterix series into Viennese language, Da Legionäa Asterix, which was released in 1999.
H. C. Artmann (†79) died from a heart attack on 4 December 2000 in Vienna.
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