The True Origins of ‘Bambi’

The Cottageviertel, the Türkenschanzpark and the „Salettl“ can be reached within 15 minutes with Bus No. 40A, with the last stop right next to the Schottentor in Vienna’s city centre.

At the train station Bahnhof Stockerau, get on a bike and explore the Hirschweg (stag trail) in the nearby Au.

A screenplay-worthy biography of a restless soul who lived above his means and whose talents were overshadowed by those of his friends. 

He played a significant role in shaping the world of literature, theatre and film during the Wiener Moderne, without ever reaping long-lasting financial success or lasting fame like many of his acquaintances.

At most, Felix Salten is known today for one of his novels, the movie version of which became a worldwide box office success, even though during his lifetime, he was one of the best-known journalists and theatre critics in Europe.

In 1890, the 21-year-old insurance salesman appeared among the „Jung-Wien“ circle at the Café Griensteidl, a literary group that included the likes of Peter Altenberg, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Karl Kraus, Stefan Zweig and Arthur Schnitzler.

We don’t know much about his childhood and his youth, other than that he was born in 1869 in Budapest as Sigmund Salzmann (he changed his name to Felix Salten in 1911, at the age of 42) and left school at 16 to sell insurance policies.

Salten became a lifelong friend of Schnitzler and when he began to work as an editor at the „Wiener Allgemeinen Zeitung“ in 1894, he used his position as theatre critic to promote Schnitzler’s debut and subsequent career.

A friendship with Karl Kraus ended in 1896 when he publicly slapped Kraus for publishing his liaison with Ottilie Metzl, whom he was to marry six years later. At that point, however, Salten was still in a relationship with the mother of his child, the Social Democrat Lotte Glas, whom he had met through Karl Kraus.

In 1902 Felix Salten and Ottilie Metzl were married. Authors Arthur Schnitzler and Siegfried Trebitsch were best men.

Felix Salten seems to have always lived above his means, most likely to impress his friends and acquaintances. His constant money troubles seem to have contributed to the prolific amount of material he published. Before the start of World War I, he wrote for numerous newspapers in Vienna, Budapest and Berlin.

Around 1900, Salten became widely known as a gossip and society correspondent who used his connections to write about scandals at the court in Vienna. Despite this rather shady profession, he was well respected by his contemporaries, as is evidenced by letters he exchanged with iconic figures such as Max Brod, Sigmund Freud, Egon Friedell, Gerhard Hauptmann, Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Robert Musil, Joseph Roth and Berta Zuckerkandl.