Karl Hans Strobl

Strobl grew up in Moravia and went to the University of Prague, where he was a member of the "Austria" student fraternity. Strobl was an admirer of Rainer Maria Rilke and wrote a review praising Rilke's poetry collection Das Stunden-Buch for a newspaper.[1] Strobl was also influenced by the ideas of Houston Stewart Chamberlain.[2]

Strobl became a prolific writer of fiction, especially "schauerromanen"—horror stories influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Hanns Heinz Ewers.[3] Fantasy historian Franz Rottensteiner states that regarding his shorter fiction, Strobl "showed himself an able writer" [4] and anthologist Mike Mitchell describes Strobl's short story "The Head" as "a masterpiece of the macabre genre".[5] After the First World War ended, Strobl relocated to Germany, where he edited the magazine Der Orchideengarten with Alfons von Czibulka; it is regarded as the world's first specialized fantasy magazine.[4]

Strobl's 1910 novel Eleagabal Kuperus was adapted as the film Nachtgestalten in 1920, starring Conrad Veidt and directed by Richard Oswald.[3]

During the First World War, Strobl expressed his advocacy for German nationalism by writing a trilogy of historical novels about Otto von Bismarck.[6]

From the 1920s onward, Strobl became more right-wing and anti-semitic, eventually becoming a supporter of Nazism. Strobl became an advocate of Austria and the Sudetenland being incorporated into German rule; he was expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1934 for pro-Nazi activities.[7] After the Anschluss he became an important official in the Nazi writers' organisation, the Reichsschrifttumskammer, and devoted his literary career solely to producing pro-Nazi propaganda.[1] At the end of the Second World War, Strobl's house in Vienna was looted by the Red Army and he was forced to work on a road repair gang. Released because of illness, he died in a poorhouse in 1946.[1] Strobl's advocacy for Nazism meant his work was briefly banned by the Allies after World War Two.[1]