Robert Musil’s Holograph Postcard to Countess Mary Dobrzensky in Potštejn Potstejn Czechoslovakia

(Musil, Robert; and his wife Martha)

Robert Musil’s Holograph Postcard to Countess Mary Dobrzensky in Potštejn [Potstejn] (Czechoslovakia).

Hotel Thalhof (Reichenau, Lower Austria): August 25, 1936 (postmark). Slightly browned. Otherwise in fine condition.

Robert Musil (1880–1942) sends his regards to Countess Mary Dobrzensky from Hotel Thalhof where he was often a guest. In May 1936 he suffered a stroke and was moved to recovery with his wife to Reichenau. He writes "Es ist reizend hier; aber in der ersten Septemberwoche muß ich wieder nach Wien, der Arbeit wegen, obschon ich eigentlich noch nicht gesund bin." (It is lovely here, but in the first week of September I must return to Vienna because of work, although I'm still not healthy.) Musil never entirely recovered from this stroke and six years later he died from another attack.

Countess Mary Dobrzensky (born Wenckheim; 1889–1970) was a Hungarian origin countess, friend and patron of intellectuals, artist and writers among them Robert Musil, Rainer Maria Rilke, Alfred Polgar, Karel Čapek, Anette Kolb and Karl Krauss. Musil and the Countess were neighbors in Vienna, both lived in the Rasumofskygasse.