1. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895)

2. Biographical background
Born 1836 Lemberg (Lvov)
“Galicia” – today eastern Poland / western Ukraine
Habsburg Monarchy / Austrian Empire

3. Map of Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1918

4. Galicia in mid-19th century
multi-cultural – Poles, Ruthenian farmers, Jews, Germans
hotbed of Slavic nationalism: Galician Uprising 1846
desire to break away from Austrian Empire (led by Polish aristocrats)

5. Galician Uprising 1846
failed: Polish and Ruthenian farmers defeated it
loyalty to the Kaiser
uprising witnessed by Sacher-Masoch as a child: features in many of his prose works

6. Prague Revolution 1848 1848: family moves to Prague
witnessed the Prague Revolution of 1848
Uprising against Kaiser and Habsburg Monarchy

7. Move to Graz (Austria)
Sacher-Masoch became a literary figure here
Known as a writer and also ran two literary periodicals

8. Sacher-Masoch Snr. police agent in service of Kaiser and Empire
German-speaking chief of police in Lemberg
“Stadthauptmann” in Prague
very cultured: ran a literary salon in Prague

9. Sacher-Masoch Jnr. literary and academic figure
prolific writer: combined political context of childhood home, Galicia, with erotic / romantic adventures
work reflects tensions of life in absolutist state

10. Decline of Empire profiles a world between tradition and change
1867: Compromise with Hungary
emergence of Dual Monarchy / Austro-Hungarian Empire
end of Dual Monarchy: 1918

11. “illness as metaphor” gender warfare: power struggle
sadism / masochism: sexually-inflected power politics
sexual perversions: politically charged
overall sense of degeneration, nihilism

12. Venus im Pelz (1869) controversial
undermined contemporary ideals of bourgeois marriage
subservience of woman to man

13. Venus im Pelz (1869) went against “natural order”
different view: R. von Krafft-Ebing: condition of male protagonist is a sexual pathology of psychic origin
maybe Sacher-Masoch was simply progressive! (M. Cosgrove)

14. Sacher-Masoch
progressive gender politics (also progressive politics on integration of Jews)
supported women’s emancipation / education
“Die Frau muß befreit werden aber nicht durch Männerkleider, Cigarren – durch Bildung und Arbeit”.
{Briefe, }

15. personal life mistress Baroness Fanny Pistor
1869: Pistor and Sacher-Masoch sign a contract
cruelty, furs, “Gregor”, trip to Italy
Venus im Pelz is not autobiography

16. Mme. Fanny Pistor et Sacher-Masoch, c. 1869