BAHR, HERMANN (1863-1934), Austrian author and playwright, member of the Prussian academy, was born at Linz, Upper Austria, July 19, 1863. After studying at the universities of Vienna, Graz, Czernowitz and Berlin and travelling extensively, Bahr settled in Vienna where he worked as feuilletonist on the staffs of various newspapers. His earlier works consisted mostly of collected volumes of light essays. Studien zur Kritik der Moderne (1890) and Die Ueberwindung des Naturalismus (1891) mark the first phase of his varied career; his initial enthusiasm for naturalism, and his attempt to reconcile it with romanticism. Wien, a more remarkable essay on the soul of Vienna, enjoyed the distinction of being prohibited under the monarchy. Under the influence of Maeterlinck, Bahr next became a champion of mysticism and symbolism. Turning to the theatre, Bahr fell under the influence of Schnitzler. His comedies, which include Wiener innen (1900), Der Krampus (1902) and Das Konzert are superficial but amusing and hit off the Viennese type of the day admirably. In 1903 Bahr became director of the Deutsches Theatre, Berlin, and in 1918 he was for a short time director of the Viennese Burgtheatre. During the war he fell under the in fluence of catholicism, and from his Austrian country home, be came the leading representative of the typically Austrian con servative and strongly catholic school, as instanced in his Him melfahrt (1916).