Max von Millenkovich


Max von Millenkovich, also known by the pseudonym Max Morold, was an Austrian writer about music and librettist who was also from 1917 to 1918 director of the K.K. Hofburgtheater, now the Burgtheater, in Vienna. He is best remembered as a writer for his work Dreigestirn: Wagner, Liszt, Bülow.

Biography

Millenkovich was born in Vienna, the son of the writer Stephan von Millenkovich and the brother of Admiral Benno von Millenkovich. After taking a law degree he worked for many years as an Imperial civil servant, ultimately in the Ministry for Arts. In 1917 he took over the direction of the Hofburgtheater after the departure of Hugo Thimig. However, Emperor Karl I intended the Burgtheater to take a special cultural role in his desire for the cohesion of the multi-ethnic state, which was entirely at odds with Millenkovich's openly-declared support for pro-German nationalism, so Millenkovich was rapidly displaced. A highlight from his short time as director was the engagement of the popular actor Alexander Girardi. In 1918, for the first time at the Burgtheater, he produced Ferdinand Raimund's Der Bauer als Millionär with Girardi as Fortunatus Wurzel.
While still a civil servant Millenkovich began writing about music, often under the pseudonym "Max Morold". From 1930 he was Viennese correspondent for the Völkischer Beobachter, and in 1931 he became a member of the board of the Austrian branch of the nationally-minded, anti-Semitic Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur. By his own admission, he was a member of the Austrian Nazi Party from 1 November 1932. After the party was banned in 1933, he became a member of the Reichsverband Deutscher Schriftsteller. In the period up to 1938 he wrote a work about Cosima Wagner. After the Anschluss he published Richard Wagner in Wien and Dreigestirn , published in Leipzig in 1940.
In 1941 he published his memoirs entitled Vom Abend bis zum Morgen, in which he described Adolf Hitler as "the embodiment of what we ourselves, between intuition and knowledge, longed for and strived for". In the same year he was awarded the Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft and the Ring of Honour of the City of Vienna.
Millenkovich died in Baden bei Wien on 5 February 1945 and was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Works (selection)

  • Max Morold: Anton Bruckner. Leipzig 1912
  • Max von Millenkovich-Morold: afterword to Ferdinand von Saar's Herr Fridolin und sein Glück. Reclams Universalbibliothek 7583, Leipzig 1944, pp. 64–79
  • Max von Millenkovich-Morold: Vom Abend zum Morgen. Aus dem alten Österreich ins neue Deutschland, Mein Weg als österreichischer Staatsbeamter und deutscher Schriftsteller, Reclam, Leipzig 1940