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Alma Mahler

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image:AlmaMahler.jpeg right|framed|Alma Mahler '''Alma Maria Mahler''' (August 31, 1879 – December 11, 1964), composer and painter, was noted in her native Vienna for her beauty and intelligence. She was the wife, successively, of one of the century's leading composers (Gustav Mahler), architects (Walter Gropius), and novelists (Franz Werfel).

Biography
Born in Vienna, Austria, to artist Emil Jakob Schindler and his wife Anna von Bergen, Alma grew up in a privileged environment. Her father's friends included Gustav Klimt, to whom she gave her "first kiss". After Schindler's death (1892), Anna married her late husband's former pupil Carl Moll. As a young woman Alma had a series of flirtations, including Klimt, director Max Burckhard and composer Alexander von Zemlinsky. On March 9, 1902 she married Gustav Mahler, who was twenty years her senior. With him, she had two daughters, Maria Anna (1902-1907), who died of scarlet fever or diphtheria, and Anna Mahler Anna (1904-1988) who later became a sculptor. The terms of Alma's marriage with Mahler were that she would forgo her own artistic interests in painting and music. Resenting this, Alma began an affair with the Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius. Late in their marriage Mahler took an interest in Alma's compositions, but it was too late. Mahler had a single consultation with Dr. Sigmund Freud as to the causes for his dissatisfied relationship. When Mahler died in 1911, Alma married Gropius. The marriage was tumultuous. For two years, Alma had an affair with artist Oskar Kokoschka, who painted his ''Bride of the Wind'' to represent their love. Fearful of the passion he evoked in her, Alma left Kokoschka for novelist Franz Werfel, and even became pregnant - she thought by him - while still married to Gropius. She divorced Gropius and married Werfel in 1929, but the child, Martin Carl Johannes, was born prematurely and died aged ten months. Alma and Gropius's daughter, Manon (1916-1935), died of polio in 1935, aged eighteen. Composer Alban Berg wrote his ''Violin Concerto (Berg) Violin Concerto'' in memory of her. In 1938 Alma and Werfel were forced to flee Austria for France to escape the ''Anschluss''. With the Germany German invasion and occupation of France during World War II, and the deportation of Jews to the Nazis Nazi extermination camp death camps, she and her husband had to flee France. With the assistance of the American journalist Varian Fry in Marseille, they escaped the Nazi regime via a riveting journey across the Pyrenees to Spain and from there to Portugal and to New York City. Eventually they settled in Los Angeles, where Werfel achieved a measure of success when his ''Song of Bernadette'' was made into a 1943 film starring Jennifer Jones. After Werfel's death in 1945, Alma moved back to New York where she was a major cultural figure until her death in 1964. Her much-married state was made sport of in Tom Lehrer's song ''Alma''. In the spoken introduction to that song, Lehrer remarked on how people like Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel "make you realize how little you've accomplished. It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age he had been dead for two years!" He also commented gleefully on how her newspaper obituary, ''like this article'', had a lengthy list of her gentleman callers. Her life is recounted in the 2001 Bruce Beresford film ''Bride of the Wind''.

Artist
Alma Schindler began composition studies with Alexander von Zemlinsky in 1897, composing Lieder and instrumental pieces as well as starting work on an opera. Also a painter, she was known as ambitious, and often described as power-hungry. Her music is still performed today.

External links

- Biography at FemBio â€“ Notable Women International
- Biographical sketch and pictures
- Photograph of Manon Gropius
- Find A Grave: Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel Category:1879 births Mahler, Alma Category:1964 deaths Mahler, Alma cs:Alma MahlerovÃ¡ de:Alma Mahler-Werfel fr:Alma Schindler he:×?×œ×ž×” ×ž×?×”×œ×¨ ja:アルマ・マーラー nl:Alma Mahler

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