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Life with Gustav Mahler (1901 -
1911)
On 7 November 1901, at the house of her friend Berta Zuckerkandl,
Alma met celebrated conductor Gustav Mahler who, as Director
of the Vienna Court Opera, held one of the most powerful positions
in the world of music.
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Alma Schindler, 1900
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Gustav Mahler en route to the Vienna
Court Opera
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At the evening gathering, Mahler fell in love with the young
beauty, and just a few weeks later, on 28 November, he made
her a proposal of marriage. Alma's family attempted to persuade
Alma not to enter into the association, since Mahler, 19 years
her senior, was considered too old for her, and there were
also rumours that he was completely impoverished and suffering
an incurable illness. The Jewish origins of the Bohemian composer,
who had converted to Catholicism, constituted a further stumbling
block.
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Berta Zuckerkandl
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Gustav Mahler, Director of the Vienna
Opera
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Alma Schindler, 1900
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On 19 December 1901, Mahler wrote a 20-page letter to Alma,
in which he set out to his wife his plan for a future life
and requested that she abandon her composition work: "How
do you imagine both wife and husband as composers? Do you
have any idea how ridiculous and subsequently how much such
an idiosyncratic rivalry must end up dragging us both down?
How will it be if you happen to be just "in the mood"
but have to look after the house for me, or get me something
I happen to need, if you are to look after the trivialities
of life for me? - Does this mean for you breaking off your
own life, and do you think you will have to do without a high
point of being which you cannot live without, if you entirely
give up your music in order to possess - and also to be -
my own?"
Alma was confused and wrote in her diary, "He thinks
nothing at all of my art - and thinks a great deal of his
own - and I think nothing of his art and a great deal of my
own. That's how it is! Now he constantly talks of preserving
his art. I can't do that. It would have worked with Zemlinsky,
because I empathize with his art - he is a brilliant chap."
However, on 23 December the couple became engaged, and on
9 March 1902, Alma and Gustav Mahler married in Vienna at
the Karlskirche. Both Mahler's friends and many from their
circle of acquaintances reacted uncomprehendingly to the marriage.
Bruno Walter, conductor at the Opera House and Mahler's closest
confidant, wrote:
"Mahler is 41 and she 22, she is a celebrated beauty,
used to a glamorous social life, while he is so unworldly
and fond of being alone ..."
The couple moved into an apartment near the Opera House.
Their household included two maids and an English governess
for their daughter Maria, who was born on 2 November 1902.
However, life together with Mahler was completely different
from the varied and gregarious life to which Alma had been
accustomed at her parents' house. Mahler hated socializing,
and attached great importance to a regular daily routine in
order to manage his workload. Alma soon felt isolated, felt
herself to have been degraded to the level of housekeeper,
and was bored. The feeling of inner emptiness was not changed
either by the birth of the couple's second daughter, Anna
Justina, who was born on 15 June 1904 and nicknamed "Gucki"
("peek") because of her expressive eyes.
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Alma in 1904 with her newborn daughter
Anna ("Gucki")
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Alma in 1905 with Gustav Mahler (centre)
and daughters Maria and Anna
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In the person of his wife, Mahler missed having a companion
with whom to share life. The conflict between them worsened
when she allowed herself to succumb to an impetuous flirtation
with his colleague Hans Pfitzner. With the knowledge and approval
of Mahler, Alma had also been getting together again with
Zemlinsky in order to make music with him. However, Zemlinsky
refused to begin teaching her again.
In July 1907, the couple's daughter Maria, who was just five
years old, died of diphtheria. For Mahler, the death of his
beloved child marked a figurative caesura in his life, and
increased the gulf between him and Alma. Moreover, at a routine
examination, Mahler was found to be suffering from a heart
defect which severely restricted his activities.
In the Viennese press there were repeated criticisms of Mahler's
leadership style at the Opera House, which finally led to
his withdrawal from the Viennese music scene. In December
1907, he took on an appointment with the Metropolitan Opera House
in New York, to which Alma accompanied him. While Mahler celebrated
his first major success with the performance of Wagner's Tristan
and Isolde, in New York too, Alma felt isolated and alone.
In the six months which the couple subsequently spent back
in Europe, Alma spent most of her time at convalescent spa
resorts and lived apart from her husband. It can be seen from
letters that, during this time, Alma at least suffered a miscarriage
or had an abortion.
In May 1910, Alma went with her daughter Anna to the spa
town of Tobelbad, a small upcoming resort in Styria. After
eight years of disappointment, Anna now consoled herself for
her years of deprivation in the person of a young architect
named Walter Gropius, who was later to become a leading figure
in modern architecture through the Bauhaus movement. After
all the years with Mahler which, for Alma, were characterized
by deprivation and asceticism, her pent-up longing to be taken
seriously as a woman now exploded within her. The two lost
themselves in unrestrained nights of passion.
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Above: Alma out walking with Gustav Mahler in Toblach
(1909/1910)
Left: Young architect Walter Gropius |
The affair came to light when Gropius "mistakenly"
addressed to Gustav Mahler a love letter intended for Alma.
Despite talking through the situation, Alma however continued
her relationship with Gropius in secret. Mahler's 10th Symphony
was created in the light of this discovery, and the manuscript
reveals an abundance of personal entries documenting how Mahler
was going through the hardest crisis of his life at the time:
"You alone know what it means. Oh! Oh! Oh! Farewell
my lyre! Farewell, farewell. Farewell" and "To live
for you! For you to die! Almschi!".
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The manuscript of Mahler's 10th Symphony
bearing the handwritten notes:
"To live for you! For you to die! Almschi!
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Gustav Mahler in 1910 on the ship
to New York
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Mahler was recommended to get in touch with Sigmund Freud,
who saw him in August 1910 in the Dutch seaside resort of
Leiden. Little is known about this meeting, which only lasted
just under four hours. There are scarcely any documents relating
to the brief session of analysis, but Freud evidently analyzed
the essence of the relationship, which was marked by a reciprocal
longing for a father/mother substitute.
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Marie Mahler,
Mahler's mother
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Gustav Mahler 1907
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Alma Maria,
Mahler's wife
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To his student Marie Bonaparte, Freud said the following:
"Mahler's wife Alma loved her father Rudolf Schindler
and could only seek out and love his type. Mahler's age, of
which he was so afraid, was precisely what made him so attractive
to his wife. Mahler loved his mother and sought her type in
every woman. His mother was troubled and full of suffering,
and subconsciously he wanted this also from his wife Alma."
With this insight, Freud granted a licence to commit incest,
and thereby brought the couple some final happy months together.
However, Alma was outraged when, shortly after Mahler's death,
Freud blithely sent her the invoice for this brief session
of analysis.
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Mahler 1911
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Sigmund Freud
analyzed the marriage
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Alma 1909
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Mahler now began focusing intensively on his wife Alma, for
instance dedicating his 8th Symphony to her, the premiere
of which, on 12 September 1910, was to become his greatest
musical triumph. Mahler also had five of Alma's Lieder
compositions published in the same year, with premieres in
Vienna and New York. Shortly before she accompanied her husband
to the USA for several months, Alma travelled to Paris in
order to meet up with Walter Gropius once again.
On his last trip to the USA, Mahler fell seriously ill. On
21 February 1911, he conducted his final concert in New York,
and then Alma travelled with her husband back to Europe. The
couple reached Vienna on the evening of May 12. Gustav Mahler
died on 18 May 1911 at around midnight, aged nearly 51. He
was buried in Grinzing Cemetery alongside his beloved daughter
Maria Anna.
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The last photograph of Mahler, on
the crossing from NY to Europe, 1911
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Mahler's death mask, taken by Carl
Moll
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"This man possessed of such wealth, who has plunged
us into the profoundest sorrow: bereft of the divine presence
of Gustav Mahler, we are left for a lifetime with the indestructible
paragon of his work and creative endeavours."
(Wreath ribbon of Arnold Schönberg and several of his
students)
In accordance with Mahler's wishes, the burial was devoid
of any ceremony, and thus his gravestone bears only his name.
His body was laid out in a small chapel just large enough
to accommodate the coffin and the first few wreaths. The number
of wreaths was indeed so great that the others had to be lined
up along the entire path to the grave of his young daughter,
for he wished to be laid to rest beside his child.
"The grieving Fourth Balcony of the Viennese Court
Opera in ineffaceable recollection - Figaro, Fidelio, Iphigenia,
Tristan."
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Arnold Schönberg: The Burial
of Gustav Mahler
(22 May 1911 in Vienna), Oil on canvas
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Mahler's body was taken from the chapel to the grave amid
heavy rain, and as soon as the funeral party arrived at the
grave, the coffin was lowered without any further ceremony.
The still large crowd in attendance, numbering several hundred,
dared scarcely speak. The rain had stopped, and a rainbow
in seven colours shone in the sky, while the song of a nightingale
penetrated the silence. Then the clods of earth fell, and
it was all over.
> next: Heaven
and hell (1911 - 1917)
< back: The most
beautiful girl in Vienna (1879 - 1901)
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