Werner Schwab
born 4.2.1958 in Graz, died 1.1.1994 ibid. 1974-77 attended the School of Arts and Crafts (Dept. Sculpture); 1978-82 studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Bruno Gironcoli in Vienna, first artistic activities in this context, as well as in János Erdödy's Graz gallery Cool Tour (1978-80); 1981 moved to south-eastern Styria to a remote farm in Kohlberg, where he lived, worked and wrote at night until 1989; 1981 birth of his son Vinzenz; 1982 marriage to Ingeborg Orthofer; years of futile publication efforts; 1989 first public performance of a text, Das Lebendige ist das Leblose und die Musik, Bronx, Graz (directed by Werner Schwab); 1990 move to Graz and premiere of Die Präsidentinnen in Vienna; international breakthrough with Volksvernichtung oder Meine Leber ist sinnlos at the Münchner Kammerspiele in 1991, for which he was awarded the Mülheim Dramatist Prize in 1992; 1991 move to Vienna; numerous commissions for the theater, awards, media hype; 16 plays in four years, seven of them premiered posthumously, collected in the Droschl-Werkausgabe in the volumes "Fäkaliendramen", "Königskomödien" and "Coverdramen"; 1993 return to Graz, where Werner Schwab died on New Year's Eve 1993/94.
See also: Dossieronline: Werner Schwab (2018)
Estate
Volume: 100 archive boxes
Contents:
Works, correspondence, life documents and collections of the author himself, collections of his widow Ingeborg Orthofer and the entire Schwab archive of Thomas Sessler Verlag.
7 archive boxes with works, 4 of which contain the autograph workbooks with early notes. Workbooks with early notes, drafts, sketches, (partly unpublished) prose texts and the hs. Originals of the plays, 3 with various typescript versions
4 archive boxes with professional and private correspondence (including a bundle of rejection letters from approx. 10 years until his breakthrough as a playwright)
2 archive boxes with life documents
87 archive boxes with collections, including 18 with audio-visual and print media publications by and about Werner Schwab and the complete Sessler archive with text booklets of all plays (18 boxes)
9 archive boxes with adaptations (translations, radio play versions etc.)
26 archive boxes with materials on individual productions (program booklets, posters, photos, performance reviews...).
Degree of processing: The collection is finely indexed, a detailed index is available.
Call number: FNI-SCHWAB
Restricted: personal letters from the "postprivatSPERREN" bundle may only be made accessible to the public with Vinzenz Schwab's consent until 2030.
Acquisition: Purchase by the Province of Styria March 2010, donation to the Nabl Institute September 2010