Born: July 12, 1892, Drohobycz, Austrian partition of Poland (presently Drohobych, Ukraine)
Died: Died: November 19, 1942, Drohobycz, occupied by Nazi Germany part of Poland (presently Drohobych, Ukraine) (murdered by a Gestapo officer)
An excerpt from Streets of Crocodiles �I sat on the floor. Spread out around me were my crayons and buttons of paint: godly colors, azures breathing freshness, greens straying to the limits of the possible. And when I took a red crayon in my hand, happy fanfares of crimson marched out into the world, all balconies brightened with red waving flags, and whole houses arranged themselves along streets into a triumphant lane. Processions of city firemen in cherry red uniforms paraded in brightly lighted happy streets, and gentlemen lifted their strawberry-colored bowlers in greeting. Cherry red sweetness and cherry red chirping of finches filled the air scented with lavender.�
The monsters. He died in the street, shot by Karl G�nther, a Gestapo officer who murdered Schulz in revenge for the shooting of his own prot�g�e, a dentist called L�we, by Felix Landau. Later Gunther said supposedly to Landau: �You killed my Jew- I killed yours.�
Ealy days. Bruno Schulz was born in Drohobycz, into a Polish-Jewish family. Father: Jakub Schulz, owner of a textile shop , mother: Henrieta, n�e Kuhmrker, the daughter of a wealthy wood merchant. In 1902-1910 he was a student at a school in Drohobycz and passed his matriculation exams with distinction. In 1910 he started studying architecture at the Civil Engineering Department of Lw�w Polytechnic. In the same year the shop was liquidated because of Bruno�s father�s illness, and the whole family moved to the home of Bruno�s married sister. Schulz studied architecture at Lwow University and fine arts in Vienna, specializing in lithography and drawing. After a year he gave up studying because of a heart and lung illness and came back to Drohobycz.
Painting career. Using the rare printing technique of cliche-verre, he produced a series of drawings amassed in a portfolio titled Xiega Balwochwalcza (c. 1920). Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz was one of the first to praise the works from this portfolio, classifying their author as a "demonologist.� After returning to his native town, Schulz worked from 1924 to 1939 as an art teacher in the local �gimnazjum� (high school). One of his students has later recalled that Schulz was considered strange; he was laughed at behind his back. During this time he went to Warsaw and to Wilno where some of his works were shown at the �Exhibition of works of Jewish artists.� In 1926 he passed the exam at Cracow�s Academy of Fine Arts entitling him to teach drawing at the high schools. In 1928 his graphics and oil painting were exhibited in Truskawiec In 1930 and in 1931 his paintings were shown in Lwow and Cracow.
Literary career. Schulz is best-known for his short stories. His is considered one of the finest Polish prose stylists of the 20th century. The American writer John Updike has called Schulz "one of the great transmogrifiers of the world into words." Schulz did not start his literary career until the 1930s. He corresponded with such avant-gardists as Witold Gombrowicz and Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy). Together with them he brought about the rebirth of the artistic language in Polish literature. As a writer Schulz made his debut with Sklepy Cynamonowe (known in the United States as Streets of Crocodiles), a collection of short stories, which was published at the urging of his close friend, Zofia Nalkowska a distinguished novelist in Warsaw. This was followed by "The Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass" ( Sanatorium pod klepsydrą ). In the spring of 1933 Schulz met Jozefina Szelinska. !934 brought an enthusiastic evaluation of his �Sklepy cynamonowe� by, among others, Nalkowska, Witkacy, Berent, Miriam, Przesmycki, Staff, Tuwim and Wittlin. His works �Druga jesien� , �Noc lipcowa� and �Genialna epoka� were published in the press. In 1935 he got engaged to to Szelinska. Later his short stories �Księga� ,�Dodo�, �M�j ojciec wstępuje do strażak�w�, �Wiosna�, �Edzio� and �Emeryt� have been published. Schulz's stories reflected the influence of Franz Kafka, but in spite of their threatening atmosphere, they had surrealistic humor and realistic details, which tied them to everyday family life. In 1936 he left the Jewish Religious Community in order to be able to marry the Catholic Szelinska. In 1937, however, the engagement to Szelinska was broken. Reading Gombrowicz�s �Ferdydurke� made a great impression on Schultz who made in 1938 the illustrations for the first edition of the book. During 1939-1941 Schulz lived in the Soviet-occupied territory, and painted propaganda material. When he was ordered to paint �The liberation of people of Western Ukraine� and used in the painting blue and yellow colors he was temporarily arrested by the NKVD accused of Ukrainian nationalism. In 1941 the German troups enter Drohobycz. The writer then came under the "protection" of a Gestapo officer, Feliks Landau, who used Schulz for numerous painting works. During Landau�s absence Schulz and his family were hiding in the cellar of the house of his friend Zbigniew Moron. In 1942 he planned to escape from Drohobycz. His friends from Warsaw provided him with false documents and money. It didn�t help however. One day Landau killed a Jewish dentist who was protected by another Gestapo officer, Gunther. In the "Aryan" quarter Schulz was spotted by Gunther, and shot in retaliation, on the street in November 19, 1942.
Posthumous recognition. After the war Schulz was "rediscovered" and a comprehensive collection of his stories, Proza, was published in 1964. Schulz's erotically suggestive paintings and drawings have been compared to those of Utrillo, de Chirico, Henri Rousseau, and Chagall. A selection of his drawings was published in Druga jesien (1973). In his short stories Schulz created a mythical childhood world which combined autobiographical elements with fantastic elements. Schulz's stories leave much unsaid, he doesn't rely on conventional plot development, and often there is not much events. In 2001 a series of murals painted by Schulz just before his tragic in "Landau's Villa" in Drohobycz was discovered. Unfortunately, the discovery was partly destroyed when representatives of the Yad Vashem Institute in Israel secretly removed significant fragments of the murals and transported them outside of Ukraine. The pieces that remained were transferred to the Drohobychina Museum in Drohobycz and were presented for the first time in Poland in 2003 as part of an exhibition titled �Republika Marzen.�
Awards. In 1938 he was awarded the Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature.
Based on the biography by Petri Liukkonen, Chief Librarian Kuusankoski Library Finland, with the permission of the author. See the original at:
Liukkonen
where is also a list of his selected works.
Other sources:
Keller (in Polish)
Malgorzata Kitowska-Lysiak (in Polish)
Library
Drawings:
The Art of Bruno Schulz
English translations of some of his works:
Constance J. Ostrowski
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