Alfred Marnau

Alfred Marnau (24 April 1918–15 June 1999), also known as Fred Marnau, was a poet and novelist in both German and English and, later in life, a traditionalist Catholic activist.

Alfred Franz Ludwig Marnau was born on 24 April 1918 in Pressburg (now Bratislava), Austria-Hungary, to a German-speaking Catholic family^[1][2][3][4] of Carpathian German origin.^[5][6]

In 1935, aged seventeen, he moved to Prague, where he supported himself as a radio actor, translator and journalist.^[7][2][8] Here he joined a circle of Czech poets including Josef Hora and Jaroslav Seifert.^[7] When the Wehrmacht invaded Czechoslovakia, he returned to Bratislava.^[7]

At a musical evening in 1938, he met Senta Polányi (born 1921),^[9] a cellist of Jewish heritage, also a Bratislava native.^[1][5][6] The same year, Senta moved to England to escape the Nazis; and Marnau followed her in August 1939.^[1][8] In England, Marnau was interned as an "untrustworthy alien" until Whitsun 1941.^[1][2] Senta's family perished at Auschwitz.^[5]

In 1944 Marnau befriended Oskar Kokoschka^[2] and worked for a while as the painter's secretary.^[5] Kokoschka drew his portrait in 1960 or 1961;^[10][11] and the painter appears in Marnau's 1961 work Räuber-Requiem.^[4] In 1986, he contributed to the catalogue of the Tate's Kokoschka exhibition;^[1] and in 1992 he collaborated with Kokoschka's widow Olda on an edition of the painter's letters.^[12]

Marnau published his first book of poetry, Der Gesang der Maurer, in 1936, aged eighteen, which was confiscated by Czech authorities because of its "pacifist" content.^{[13][1][6][7]}

In London, Marnau associated with the "New Romantic" poets, such as Alex Comfort, Wrey Gardiner and Herbert Read. With Wrey Gardiner he ran the Grey Walls Press and edited Poetry Quarterly.^[2] He was the editor of New Road, published by Grey Walls, from 1945 to 1946.^[2]

Marnau's poetry has been described as "symbolist"^[14] and "tend[ing] towards religiosity."^[15] Others have observed that even in his earliest work (Der Gesang der Maurer, 1936), his "Christian-humanist" credo is detectable.^[6][8]

Marnau joined the Latin Mass Society in 1969^[16][17] and was elected Chairman in 1973.^[1] He resigned as Chairman of the Latin Mass Society in 1982, but renewed his involvement in July 1988, being elected Vice-President.^[16] Marnau was a signatory to the 1971 statement in favour of the Tridentine rite, which led to the "Agatha Christie indult".^[18][19]

In 1981, Marnau and Sue Coote founded Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, of which Marnau was Chairman.^[16][19] He resigned as Chairman of Pro Ecclesia following the death of his wife in 1985.^[16]

Marnau joined the Order of Malta in 1986, making his simple vows as a Knight of Justice on 21 May 1992 and his solemn (perpetual) vows on 16 November 1995.^[1]

In addition to his literary activities, he ran a travel agency, Pilgrim Holidays, with his wife until her death in 1985.^[1]

Senta Marnau died 15 March 1985 in London, and is buried in Highgate Cemetery.^[20] Alfred Marnau died in London on 15 June 1999^[2][3] and is also buried in Highgate Cemetery.^[21]

Marnau's daughter Corinna entered the Benedictine abbey of St. Cecilia, Ryde, Isle of White, where she made her solemn profession in 1988.^[16][22]

In 1993 Marnau was made Honorary Professor of Literature at the University of Vienna and awarded the medal Pro Cultura Hungarica.^[1][16] After his death in 1999 he received the Goldenes Verdienstzeichen of the city of Vienna.^[1]

Jeremy Reed's Elegy for Alfred Marnau appeared in 2000.^[23] Reed's Elegy for Senta, dedicated to Senta Marnau, had appeared after her death in 1985.^[24]

Marnau's daughter, Corinna, known by her religious name, Sister Maximilian, wrote a memoir, The Threefold Garland, under the pen-name Severine Kirchhof.^[16][25]

• Der steinerne Gang (part 1 of Die Mitwirkenden). Nuremberg: Nest Verlag, 1948. English tr., as Free among the Dead, London: Harvill, 1950. 2nd ed., Nördlingen: Greno, 1989.
• Das Verlangen nach der Hölle (part 2 of Die Mitwirkenden). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1952. English tr., as The Guest, London: Thames and Hudson, 1956. 2nd ed. Nördlingen: Greno, 1987
• Polykarp und Zirpelin Imperator (part 3 of Die Mitwirkenden). Nördlingen: Greno, 1987.

• Wounds of the Apostles, with facing-page English translation by Ernst Sigler. London: Grey Walls Press, 1944.
• Death of the Cathedral: Der Tod der Kathedrale, with facing-page English translation by Ernst Sigler. London: Grey Walls Press, 1946.
• Räuber-Requiem: Gedichtauswahl. Salzburg: Otto Müller Verlag, 1961.
• Vogelfrei: Frühe Gedichte 1935–1940. Nördlingen: Greno, 1988.

• New Poems. London: Enitharmon Press, 1984.