Chronik zu Leben und Werk Ingeborg Bachmanns

In these times of a diminishing epistolary culture, the extensive processing of Ingeborg Bachmann’s epistolary estate is just beginning. The letters are of the greatest literary and cultural-historical importance. They represent the most important source for the creation of a differentiated chronicle of the author’s life and work, which was compiled in digital form between 2018 and 2021 as an OeNB Anniversary Fund project (17911) at the Salzburg Bachmann Research Center. In addition to the previously blocked letters and the likewise blocked life documents (diary and travel records, invoices, contracts, etc.), pieces of the author’s correspondence from other archives were also processed.

The aim of the project was to produce a digital index of correspondence that is as comprehensive as possible, based on Ingeborg Bachmann’s estate of letters, which comprises around 9,000 sheets and now includes the evaluation of 5,500 letters and other documents.

The Chronik contains not only representations of the letters and life documents structured according to certain parameters (places, dates, publication history, contacts, reading, etc.), but also selected quotations.

In the editorial practice of the Salzburg Bachmann Edition, the Chronik proves to be a central aid, since it offers a systematic overview of all significant correspondence and provides valuable information for the annotation of the volumes. It is planned to make the results available to the entire Bachmann research community (in a reduced form due to copyright issues) on the homepage of the Literature Archive.

The project Chronik zu Leben und Werk Ingeborg Bachmanns was compiled between October 2018 and September 2021 by Caroline Scholzen and Anna Estermann and was under the direction of Irene Fußl, in collaboration with Silvia Bengesser and Hans Höller.