Oskar Panizza
Encyclopedia
Leopold Hermann Oskar Panizza (12 November 1853 – 28 September 1921) was a German
psychiatrist
and avant-garde
author, playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, publisher and literary journal editor. He is best known for his provocative tragicomedy, Das Liebeskonzil
(The Love Council, 1894), for which he served a one-year prison sentence after being convicted in Munich
in 1895 on 93 counts of blasphemy
. Upon his release from prison, he lived for eight years in exile, first in Zürich
and later in Paris
.
His deteriorating mental health forced him to return to Germany, where he spent his last sixteen years in an asylum in Bayreuth. The scandal-ridden Panizza suffered more than any other German author under the repressive censorship
imposed during the reign of Kaiser
Wilhelm II.
, northern Bavaria
(Lower Franconia
), to Karl (1808–1855) and Mathilde Panizza, née Speeth (1821–1915). Karl was descended from a family of Italian fishermen on Lake Como
. Mathilde, herself a prolific writer under the pseudonym Siona, was descended from an aristocratic Huguenot
family by the name of de Meslère. Oskar's four siblings were Maria (1846–1925), Felix (1848–1908), Karl (1852–1916) and Ida (1855–1922).
Religious friction between Oskar's parents began even before their marriage. When Oskar was two years old, his Catholic father died of typhoid. On his deathbed, Karl granted Mathilde permission to raise their five children in the Protestant faith, despite the fact that they had all been baptized Catholic at his insistence. It was only after years of struggling and several lost trials that King Maximilian II of Bavaria
finally granted Mathilde permission to educate her children in the Protestant faith.
Mathilde Panizza was the proprietor of the Hotel Russischer Hof, purchased in 1850, a renowned establishment that catered to Russian nobility and other distinguished guests in the popular spa town
. By his own and his mother's accounts, Oskar was a rebellious and difficult child. In 1863, the nine-year-old was enrolled in the Pietistic boarding school in Kornthal, Württemberg
. In 1869 he transferred to the humanistic Gymnasium (school)
in Schweinfurt
. Two years later, Mathilde reluctantly agreed to allow her seventeen-year-old son to continue his studies in Munich
, where he had to repeat the first year before he dropped out of school altogether to pursue a short-lived singing career.
, Panizza returned to his old Gymnasium
in Schweinfurt
. There he finally received his Abitur
degree at the advanced age of 24. Later in 1877 he enrolled at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
, where he completed his medical studies in 1880 with a dissertation on microorganisms in sputum
. After some months in Paris pursuing his twin interests of psychiatry
and poetry
, he returned to Munich to become an assistant to Dr. Bernhard von Gudden
, one of Germany's leading psychiatrists. During the two years that Panizza worked for Gudden, he was colleagues with Emil Kraepelin
, who would later also become a renowned psychiatrist.
A turning point in Panizza's life came in 1883, when the thirty-year-old convinced his mother, who had profitably sold her hotel, to establish a trust that would provide him with an annual allowance of six thousands marks. With this financial backing, he abandoned medicine
in 1884 and devoted himself exclusively to literary pursuits. While suffering a major depression
that year, Panizza had discovered the curative and therapeutic value of writing. His first three volumes of poetry were rather crude constructions in jagged tetrameter
, consciously inspired by Heinrich Heine
: Düstre Lieder (1886), Londoner Lieder (1887) and Legendäres und Fabelhaftes (1889).
, Otto Julius Bierbaum
and Max Halbe. The most significant of these was Michael Georg Conrad, editor of the influential journal Die Gesellschaft since 1885. The two Franconians became close friends, and from 1890 to 1896 Panizza published over forty articles in Die Gesellschaft on widely varied topics, ranging from theater reviews to theoretical considerations of prostitution
.
Panizza became an avid member of the Gesellschaft für modernes Leben (Society for Modern Life), which Conrad founded in 1890 together with Detlev von Liliencron
, Otto Julius Bierbaum
, Julius Schaumberger, Hanns von Gumppenberger and Georg Schaumberg. One of Panizza's notable presentations was a lecture in 1891 titled Genie und Wahnsinn (Genius and Madness), which drew heavily on the work of Cesare Lombroso
. Of particular interest even today are Panizza's discussions of hallucinations and model psychosis
, hashish
and the hallucinatory basis of religion
.
With the publication in 1893 of Die unbefleckte Empfängnis der Päpste (The Immaculate Conception of the Popes), Panizza embarked on a path of militant anti-Catholicism
. This work and a subsequent polemic, Der teutsche Michel und der römische Papst (The German Fool and the Roman Pope, 1894), were confiscated by the district attorney and banned from the German Empire
.
Another 1893 book by Panizza, The Operated Jew
, is an antisemitic novel written from a medical perspective.
(The Love Council), which was published in Zürich in October 1894. Subtitled "A Heavenly Tragedy in Five Acts," it is set in 1495, the first historically documented outbreak of syphilis
. In scenes alternating between heaven
, hell
and the Vatican
, Das Liebeskonzil portrays the dreaded venereal disease as God's vengeance on his sexually hyperactive human creatures, especially those surrounding Pope Alexander VI
(Rodrigo Borgia). The play was produced as Le Concil D'Amour in Paris in 1969 by The Théâtre de Paris. With 'scandalous' costumes by Leonor Fini
the play won numerous awards, including the prestigious "Le Prix des Critiques" for Fini's costumes and sets.
Most shocking of all was Panizza's naturalistic depiction of the entities worshipped by Catholics: God appears as a senile old fool, Christ is dimwitted and weak, while a slutty Mary is the one firmly in control of negotiations with the devil
. Satan
's assignment is to develop a suitable punishment that will devastate sinners’ bodies but still leave their souls capable of salvation
. Together with Salome
, the devil fathers a beautiful woman, who will spread the poison (originally a "virus
" in Panizza's manuscript) among unsuspecting humans.
Even though the work appeared in Switzerland, the district attorney in Munich charged Panizza with 93 counts of blasphemy
in violation of §166 of the Imperial Strafgesetzbuch
(Criminal Code). As a result, Panizza became an instant literary celebrity, with authors ranging from a teenaged Thomas Mann
to Theodor Fontane
, the 76-year-old dean of German letters, weighing in on one side or the other of the raging debate. In April 1895, Panizza was convicted after a one-day trial, for which had written an extensive literary defense. After several failed appeals, Panizza served his full 12-month sentence at the prison in Amberg
, where he was released in August 1896.
Discussion of Christ" to "The Pig in its Poetical, Mythological and Cultural-Historical Aspects."
Among the literary works published during his Swiss exile in 1898 were the political satire Psichopatia Criminalis and the historical drama Nero. Throughout his Swiss sojourn, Panizza's mental health gradually began to deteriorate. His orthography
also became more deviant, as his spelling
grew progressively more phonetic.
At the end of 1898, Panizza was abruptly expelled from Switzerland after being declared an undesirable alien. The reasoning behind this expulsion remains unclear. Although there was a complaint against the author by a fifteen-year-old prostitute, Olga, who served Panizza as a photographic model, there were no charges filed. It may have been a heightened fear of foreign anarchists
that led to his expulsion. At any rate, he once more packed up his belongings, including his extensive library of ten thousand books, and moved to Paris.
After several months of incarceration, including extensive psychiatric examinations at the same institution where twenty years previously he had worked as a young doctor, Panizza was diagnosed with systematic paranoia
. All criminal charges were dropped due to insanity
, and he was free to return to Paris, where he lived for three more years.
attempt, his failure to be admitted to the psychiatric clinic, and the refusal of his 84-year-old mother to even see him, in October 1904 he provoked his own arrest by striding down the bustling Leopoldstraße wearing only a shirt.
In 1905 Panizza was admitted to Herzogshöhe, an asylum for wealthy heart and circulatory patients on the outskirts of Bayreuth. After being declared mentally incompetent, he was placed under the tutelage of a brother and later Deacon Friedrich Lippert, who had befriended him during his imprisonment at Amberg. He spent the last sixteen years of his life in this institution, where he died of a stroke
in 1921. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Bayreuth municipal cemetery.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
and avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
author, playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, publisher and literary journal editor. He is best known for his provocative tragicomedy, Das Liebeskonzil
Das Liebeskonzil
Liebeskonzil is a 1982 film by Werner Schroeter, based on a play by Oskar Panizza. It was banned by the Austrian government in 1985, on the grounds that it insulted the Christian religion. In 1994, in the case of Otto-Preminger-Institut v...
(The Love Council, 1894), for which he served a one-year prison sentence after being convicted in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
in 1895 on 93 counts of blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
. Upon his release from prison, he lived for eight years in exile, first in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
and later in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
His deteriorating mental health forced him to return to Germany, where he spent his last sixteen years in an asylum in Bayreuth. The scandal-ridden Panizza suffered more than any other German author under the repressive censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
imposed during the reign of Kaiser
Kaiser
Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress". Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar,...
Wilhelm II.
Early years
Panizza was born in Bad KissingenBad Kissingen
Bad Kissingen is a spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and is the seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is a world-famous health resort.- Town structure :...
, northern Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
(Lower Franconia
Lower Franconia
Lower Franconia is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria , Germany ....
), to Karl (1808–1855) and Mathilde Panizza, née Speeth (1821–1915). Karl was descended from a family of Italian fishermen on Lake Como
Lake Como
Lake Como is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore...
. Mathilde, herself a prolific writer under the pseudonym Siona, was descended from an aristocratic Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
family by the name of de Meslère. Oskar's four siblings were Maria (1846–1925), Felix (1848–1908), Karl (1852–1916) and Ida (1855–1922).
Religious friction between Oskar's parents began even before their marriage. When Oskar was two years old, his Catholic father died of typhoid. On his deathbed, Karl granted Mathilde permission to raise their five children in the Protestant faith, despite the fact that they had all been baptized Catholic at his insistence. It was only after years of struggling and several lost trials that King Maximilian II of Bavaria
Maximilian II of Bavaria
Maximilian II of Bavaria was king of Bavaria from 1848 until 1864. He was son of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.-Crown Prince:...
finally granted Mathilde permission to educate her children in the Protestant faith.
Mathilde Panizza was the proprietor of the Hotel Russischer Hof, purchased in 1850, a renowned establishment that catered to Russian nobility and other distinguished guests in the popular spa town
Spa town
A spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...
. By his own and his mother's accounts, Oskar was a rebellious and difficult child. In 1863, the nine-year-old was enrolled in the Pietistic boarding school in Kornthal, Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
. In 1869 he transferred to the humanistic Gymnasium (school)
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km northeast of Würzburg.- History :...
. Two years later, Mathilde reluctantly agreed to allow her seventeen-year-old son to continue his studies in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, where he had to repeat the first year before he dropped out of school altogether to pursue a short-lived singing career.
From psychiatrist to poet
After fulfilling his military service as a conscript in the Bavarian army, followed by a grave bout of choleraCholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
, Panizza returned to his old Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km northeast of Würzburg.- History :...
. There he finally received his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
degree at the advanced age of 24. Later in 1877 he enrolled at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...
, where he completed his medical studies in 1880 with a dissertation on microorganisms in sputum
Sputum
Sputum is mucus that is coughed up from the lower airways. It is usually used for microbiological investigations of respiratory infections....
. After some months in Paris pursuing his twin interests of psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
and poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, he returned to Munich to become an assistant to Dr. Bernhard von Gudden
Bernhard von Gudden
Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden was a German neuroanatomist and psychiatrist born in Kleve.In 1848 he earned his doctorate from the University of Halle, and became an intern at the asylum in Siegburg under Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi...
, one of Germany's leading psychiatrists. During the two years that Panizza worked for Gudden, he was colleagues with Emil Kraepelin
Emil Kraepelin
Emil Kraepelin was a German psychiatrist. H.J. Eysenck's Encyclopedia of Psychology identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, as well as of psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics. Kraepelin believed the chief origin of psychiatric disease to be biological and genetic...
, who would later also become a renowned psychiatrist.
A turning point in Panizza's life came in 1883, when the thirty-year-old convinced his mother, who had profitably sold her hotel, to establish a trust that would provide him with an annual allowance of six thousands marks. With this financial backing, he abandoned medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
in 1884 and devoted himself exclusively to literary pursuits. While suffering a major depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
that year, Panizza had discovered the curative and therapeutic value of writing. His first three volumes of poetry were rather crude constructions in jagged tetrameter
Tetrameter
Tetrameter: [ti'tramitə]; te·tram·e·ter; a verse of four measuresOrigin: early 17th century : from late Latin tetrametrus, originally neuter from Greek tetrametros 'having four measures,' from tetra- 'four' + metron 'measure'....
, consciously inspired by Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
: Düstre Lieder (1886), Londoner Lieder (1887) and Legendäres und Fabelhaftes (1889).
The Munich Moderns
Panizza's first collection of fiction, Dämmrungsstücke, appeared in 1890, received a modest amount of critical acclaim in the press and brought him to the attention of Germany's leading literary figures. By the end of 1890, the obscure psychiatrist had gotten to know most of the Munich "Moderns," as the young naturalists called themselves, including Frank WedekindFrank Wedekind
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind , usually known as Frank Wedekind, was a German playwright...
, Otto Julius Bierbaum
Otto Julius Bierbaum
Otto Julius Bierbaum was a German writer.Bierbaum was born in Grünberg, Silesia. After studying in Leipzig, he became a journalist and editor for the journals Die freie Bühne, Pan and Die Insel. His literary work was varied...
and Max Halbe. The most significant of these was Michael Georg Conrad, editor of the influential journal Die Gesellschaft since 1885. The two Franconians became close friends, and from 1890 to 1896 Panizza published over forty articles in Die Gesellschaft on widely varied topics, ranging from theater reviews to theoretical considerations of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
.
Panizza became an avid member of the Gesellschaft für modernes Leben (Society for Modern Life), which Conrad founded in 1890 together with Detlev von Liliencron
Detlev von Liliencron
Baron Detlev von Liliencron born Friedrich Adolf Axel Detlev Liliencron was a German lyric poet and novelist from Kiel, the son of Louis Freiherr von Liliencron and Adeline von Harten....
, Otto Julius Bierbaum
Otto Julius Bierbaum
Otto Julius Bierbaum was a German writer.Bierbaum was born in Grünberg, Silesia. After studying in Leipzig, he became a journalist and editor for the journals Die freie Bühne, Pan and Die Insel. His literary work was varied...
, Julius Schaumberger, Hanns von Gumppenberger and Georg Schaumberg. One of Panizza's notable presentations was a lecture in 1891 titled Genie und Wahnsinn (Genius and Madness), which drew heavily on the work of Cesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso, born Ezechia Marco Lombroso was an Italian criminologist and founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology. Lombroso rejected the established Classical School, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature...
. Of particular interest even today are Panizza's discussions of hallucinations and model psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
, hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
and the hallucinatory basis of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
.
With the publication in 1893 of Die unbefleckte Empfängnis der Päpste (The Immaculate Conception of the Popes), Panizza embarked on a path of militant anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism is a generic term for discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed against Catholicism, and especially against the Catholic Church, its clergy or its adherents...
. This work and a subsequent polemic, Der teutsche Michel und der römische Papst (The German Fool and the Roman Pope, 1894), were confiscated by the district attorney and banned from the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
.
Another 1893 book by Panizza, The Operated Jew
The Operated Jew
The Operated Jew is a satirical antisemitic book published by the German physician Oskar Panizza in 1893. Written from a medical perspective, it highlighted the more scientific form of racism that became characteristic of the modern era.-Plot summary:...
, is an antisemitic novel written from a medical perspective.
Das Liebeskonzil
The work that was to unalterably change his life was Das LiebeskonzilDas Liebeskonzil
Liebeskonzil is a 1982 film by Werner Schroeter, based on a play by Oskar Panizza. It was banned by the Austrian government in 1985, on the grounds that it insulted the Christian religion. In 1994, in the case of Otto-Preminger-Institut v...
(The Love Council), which was published in Zürich in October 1894. Subtitled "A Heavenly Tragedy in Five Acts," it is set in 1495, the first historically documented outbreak of syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
. In scenes alternating between heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
and the Vatican
Apostolic Palace
The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican...
, Das Liebeskonzil portrays the dreaded venereal disease as God's vengeance on his sexually hyperactive human creatures, especially those surrounding Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
(Rodrigo Borgia). The play was produced as Le Concil D'Amour in Paris in 1969 by The Théâtre de Paris. With 'scandalous' costumes by Leonor Fini
Leonor Fini
Leonor Fini was an Argentine surrealist painter.-Life and work:Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she was raised in Trieste, Italy. She moved to Milan at the age of 17, and then to Paris, in either 1931 or 1932...
the play won numerous awards, including the prestigious "Le Prix des Critiques" for Fini's costumes and sets.
Most shocking of all was Panizza's naturalistic depiction of the entities worshipped by Catholics: God appears as a senile old fool, Christ is dimwitted and weak, while a slutty Mary is the one firmly in control of negotiations with the devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
. Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
's assignment is to develop a suitable punishment that will devastate sinners’ bodies but still leave their souls capable of salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
. Together with Salome
Salome
Salome , the Daughter of Herodias , is known from the New Testament...
, the devil fathers a beautiful woman, who will spread the poison (originally a "virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
" in Panizza's manuscript) among unsuspecting humans.
Even though the work appeared in Switzerland, the district attorney in Munich charged Panizza with 93 counts of blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
in violation of §166 of the Imperial Strafgesetzbuch
Strafgesetzbuch
Strafgesetzbuch is the German name for Penal Code and is abbreviated to StGB.- History :In Germany the Strafgesetzbuch goes back to the Penal Code of the German Empire passed in the year 1871 which was largely identical to the Penal Code of the North German Confederation.This Reichsstrafgesetzbuch ...
(Criminal Code). As a result, Panizza became an instant literary celebrity, with authors ranging from a teenaged Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
to Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist writer.-Youth:Fontane was born in Neuruppin into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession. He became an...
, the 76-year-old dean of German letters, weighing in on one side or the other of the raging debate. In April 1895, Panizza was convicted after a one-day trial, for which had written an extensive literary defense. After several failed appeals, Panizza served his full 12-month sentence at the prison in Amberg
Amberg
Amberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. Population: 44,756 .- History :...
, where he was released in August 1896.
Swiss Sojourn
After serving his prison sentence, Panizza moved to Zurich, where he founded the journal Zürcher Diskussionen, which dealt with all aspects of "modern life." Between 1897 and 1902, he published 32 issues of the journal, which contained mostly his own articles, often appearing under such pseudonyms as Hans Kirstemaecker, Louis Andrée, Hans Detmar and Sven Heidenstamm. Some of the more intriguing articles range from "A PsychopathologicalPsychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
Discussion of Christ" to "The Pig in its Poetical, Mythological and Cultural-Historical Aspects."
Among the literary works published during his Swiss exile in 1898 were the political satire Psichopatia Criminalis and the historical drama Nero. Throughout his Swiss sojourn, Panizza's mental health gradually began to deteriorate. His orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
also became more deviant, as his spelling
Spelling
Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters...
grew progressively more phonetic.
At the end of 1898, Panizza was abruptly expelled from Switzerland after being declared an undesirable alien. The reasoning behind this expulsion remains unclear. Although there was a complaint against the author by a fifteen-year-old prostitute, Olga, who served Panizza as a photographic model, there were no charges filed. It may have been a heightened fear of foreign anarchists
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
that led to his expulsion. At any rate, he once more packed up his belongings, including his extensive library of ten thousand books, and moved to Paris.
Parisjana
The six years Panizza spent in Paris were not nearly as productive as the preceding ones. By the end of 1899, he had completed 97 poems in tetrameter, which may be the most vitriolic anti-German verse written by a German poet in the nineteenth century. These poems appeared in the collection Parisjana (1899), the last book to be published by Panizza. He characterized this volume as a work "in which the author's personal opponent, Wilhelm II, is portrayed as the public enemy of mankind and culture." As a result of his libelous poetry directed against the Kaiser, Panizza was charged with lèse-majesté and his entire trust fund was impounded. When he could no longer pay the rent, he returned to Munich in April 1901 and turned himself in to the authorities.After several months of incarceration, including extensive psychiatric examinations at the same institution where twenty years previously he had worked as a young doctor, Panizza was diagnosed with systematic paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
. All criminal charges were dropped due to insanity
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
, and he was free to return to Paris, where he lived for three more years.
Demise
Panizza's progressive paranoia and auditory hallucinations propelled him back to Munich in 1904. After an unsuccessful suicideSuicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
attempt, his failure to be admitted to the psychiatric clinic, and the refusal of his 84-year-old mother to even see him, in October 1904 he provoked his own arrest by striding down the bustling Leopoldstraße wearing only a shirt.
In 1905 Panizza was admitted to Herzogshöhe, an asylum for wealthy heart and circulatory patients on the outskirts of Bayreuth. After being declared mentally incompetent, he was placed under the tutelage of a brother and later Deacon Friedrich Lippert, who had befriended him during his imprisonment at Amberg. He spent the last sixteen years of his life in this institution, where he died of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in 1921. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Bayreuth municipal cemetery.
Selected works
- 1881 Über Myelin, Pigment, Epithelien und Micrococcen im Sputum (Med. Dissertation), Leipzig: J.B. Hirschfeld, 1881.
- Düstre Lieder. Leipzig: Unflad, 1886.
- Londoner Lieder. Leipzig: Unflad, 1887.
- Legendäres und Fabelhaftes. Unflad, 1889.
- Dämmrungsstücke. Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, 1890.
- Aus dem Tagebuch eines Hundes. Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, 1892.
- Die unbefleckte Empfängnis der Päpste. Zürich: Verlagsmagazin J. Schabelitz, 1893.
- Der teutsche Michel und der römische Papst. Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, 1894.
- Das Liebeskonzil. Eine Himmels-Tragödie in fünf Aufzügen. Zürich: Verlags-Magazin J. Schabelitz, 1895 (October 1894).
- Der Illusionismus und die Rettung der Persönlichkeit. Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, 1895.
- Meine Verteidigung in Sachen "Das Liebeskonzil". Zürich: Verlagsmagazin J. Schabelitz, 1895.
- Abschied von München. Ein Handschlag. Zürich: Verlagsmagazin J. Schabelitz, 1896.
- Dialoge im Geiste Hutten's. Zürich: Verlag der Zürcher Diskußjonen, 1897.
- Die Haberfeldtreiben im bairischen Gebirge. Eine sittengeschichtliche Studie. Berlin: S. Fischer, 1897.
- Psichopatia criminalis. Anleitung um die vom Gericht für notwendig erkanten Geisteskrankheiten psichjatrisch zu eruïren und wissenschaftlich festzustellen. Für Ärzte, Laien, Juristen, Vormünder, Verwaltungsbeamte, Minister etc. Zürich: Verlag der Zürcher Diskußjonen, 1898.
- Nero. Tragödie in fünf Aufzügen. Zürich: Verlag Zürcher Diskußionen, 1898.
- Parisjana. Deutsche Verse aus Paris. Zürich: Verlag Zürcher Diskußionen, 1899.