Page 135 - 80_03

C.
Friedrich

military
drug
officer
in
the
garrison
hospital
of
Innsbruck,
which
he
soon
quitted
in

September
already.
He
gave
up
his
position
in
the
Ministry
of
Public
Labour
after

two
hours
of
work.
Instead,
he
applied
for
a
job
as
a
pharmacy
officer
in
the

Ministry
of
War,
got
the
job
and
had
to
check
columns
of
numbers
all
day.
Trakl

was
on
sick
leave
and
considered
returning
to
the
military.
He
applied
for
positions

in
the
dispensaries
of
Vienna.

Even
though
his
friends
had
given
him
lots
of
support,
he
proved
himself

incapable
of
living.
The
philosopher
Ludwig
Wittgenstein
(1889–1951)
–
who
had

also
been
industrialist
at
that
time
–
had
offered
a
large
amount
of
money
to
Trakl

and
Rainer
Maria
Rilke
(1875–1926).
Trakl
should
have
received
20.000
Kronen

(200.000
Mark)
that
would
have
eased
his
financial
difficulties
for
a
long
period.

Yet,
he
was
unable
to
fetch
the
money,
an
stood
trembling
in
front
of
the
bank.

Fairly
at
the
beginning
of
World
War
I,
Trakl
was
conscripted
into
the
army

in
October
1914.
After
strenuous
marches
through
Galicia
he
experienced
the

Battle
of
Gródekto
which
he
dedicated
his
last
poem.
He
had
to
take
care
of
90

seriously
wounded
people
almost
without
medicine
in
a
barn.
Trakl
suffered
from

a
nervous
breakdown
and
attempted
suicide,
but
his
comrades
took
his
gun
away.

Shortly
thereafter,
he
was
transferred
to
a
garrison
hospital
in
Kraków,
as
he

believed
in
order
to
work
as
a
military
pharmacist.
Indeed
he
was
brought
to
the

psychiatric
department
for
the
observation
of
his
mental
state.
One
of
his
friends

reported
that
Trakl
had
lost
the
will
to
live.
On
November
3rd
1914
Trakl
died
of
a

cocaine
overdose,
presumably
because
he
wanted
to
end
his
life.

Trakl
was
buried
at
the
Rakowicki
Cemetery
in
Kraków,
in
1925
his
mortal

remains
were
transferred
to
the
Mühlau
Cemetery
near
Innsbruck.
Trakl
proved
to

be
unable
to
lead
a
normal
life,
but
he
was
capable
of
lyricism
of
enduring
value

under
the
most
difficult
circumstances.
He
wrote
poems
full
of
melancholia
and

mortal
eroticism
which
illustrate
his
groping
for
myth
and
faith.
Although
he
felt

an
inner
distance
towards
the
profession
of
a
pharmacist,
he
has
worked
for
a

considerable
part
of
his
life
as
such
(14).

PHARMACISTS
AS
VISUAL
ARTISTS

Being
involved
in
visual
arts
is
not
too
far
away
from
working
as
a

pharmacist
because
either
require
precise
observation
of
nature.
Pharmacists

must
be
able
to
recognize
drugs
or
medicinal
plants
and
identity
them
accurately.

Consequently,
some
pharmacists
directly
illustrated
natural
objects,
for
instance

Gottlieb
Wilhelm
Bischoff
(1797–1854),
professor
in
Heidelberg,
who
originally

intended
to
become
a
painter.
Apart
from
his
occupation
as
a
botanist
he
created

paintings
of
high
artistic
value,
for
example
for
Carl
Philipp
Martius’
(1794–1862)

writing
‘Nova
genera
et
species
plantarum,
quas
in
itinere
per
Brasiliam’
(15).

608