Release date is 2025-07-17

Richard Illner, Alpo Tiilikka and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

"Heimat und Fremde : Gedichte by Franz S. Gschmeidler" is a collection of lyric poetry written in the early 20th century. The book meditates on home and estrangement, blending landscapes of the Danube region and Lower Austria with reflections on seasons, love, grief, faith, and the moral duties of compassion. Its likely topic is the search for belonging and consolation after upheaval, expressed through nature scenes, intimate prayers, and humane counsel. The poems move from patriotic and local evocations (Donauland, Mödling, Frauenstein) to quiet city and forest vistas, prayers for a wounded Austria, and richly drawn seasons—snowdrops, Easter bells, summer nights, and harvest calm. Love lyrics dwell on yearning, parting, and remembrance, while war-shadowed pieces lament fallen sons and the sorrow of mothers, and elegies honor a dead father and fellow poets. Other texts offer inward night walks, moments of homesickness in foreign places, and brief philosophical and devotional notes on fate, truth, kindness, and endurance, alongside a gently humorous saint’s tale. Across these varied tones, the book gathers its themes into a steady message: cherish homeland and one another, carry grief with dignity, and let time and love turn life’s wounds into song. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Mödling: Verlag der Mödlinger Nachrichten, 1920