Mars in Aries

This novel, written between December 1939 and February 1940 and published as The Blue Hour in 1941, was suppressed by the Nazis and reissued in 1947. The early chapters of the novel are set in Vienna in the weeks before the invasion of Poland in September 1939. The central character, Wallmoden, is an officer awaiting the order to invade and keeps himself occupied by pursuing a romance with a mysterious woman. The novel is significant for its hinting at the existence of an organised Austrian resistance movement at the time of the invasion.

The author, Alexander Lernet-Holenia (born 21 October 1897), had a place in the University of Vienna to study law but volunteered for the army in September 1915. During the war he began writing poetry and became a protégé of Rainer Maria Rilke. His first book of poetry was published in 1921, his first play in 1926 and his first novel in 1931. His 1934 novel, The Standard, was set during Austria-Hungary’s collapse in the First World War. He took part in the invasion of Poland in September 1939 but became a dissident later in the war. He went on to write several widely-acclaimed novels and was awarded the State Prize for Literature in 1961 for his body of work.

The central character, Count Wallmoden, is, like the author, a veteran of the First World War. During the invasion he comes to a place where he had previously been as a soldier and recalls:
“From here... from here I went to the field for the first time. We had spent several months garrisoned in the city. It was here, where we got into the train, here at this point. I was 18 years old then, or a little more. There were four of us and we had a wagon with our horses with us. I still know the names of the people that bid us farewell. I remember their faces. I still know almost all of the words that they said. It seems to me as though it were yesterday. It wasn't that long ago. It must have been about 23 years.”