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He was born as René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke in Prague on 4 December 1875. His childhood and youth in Prague were not very happy. His father, Josef Rilke ( 1838- 1906), became a railway official after an unsuccessful military career. His mother, Sophie ("Phia") Entz ( 1851- 1931), came from a well-to-do Prague manufacturing family. The parents' marriage fell apart in 1884. The relationship between the mother and her only son was encumbered because the mother had not got over the early death of her elder daughter and forced René (French: "The Reborn"!) into her role and tied him to her out of emotional helplessness.
The parents pressurised the poetically and artistically gifted youth into attending a military academy from 1886, but he left it due to illness in 1891. From 1892 to 1895Events January events January 5 Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. February events February 14 First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnes he had private lessons to prepare him for the university entry exam, which he passed in 1895Events January events January 5 Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. February events February 14 First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnes. In 1895 and 1896 he studied literature, history of art and philosophy in Prague and MunichMunich ( German: Munchen ) is the state capital of the German Bundesland of Bavaria. Behind Berlin and Hamburg, Munich is Germany's third largest city with a population of about 1. 261 million ( as of 2003). It is located on the river Isar. History The se. Once he had left Prague Rilke changed his first name from "René" to Rainer and thereby gave an external signal for a critical analysis of the unhappy bond with his family.
In 1897 in Munich Rainer Maria Rilke met and fell in love with the widely travelled intellectual and lady of letters Lou Andreas-Salomé ( 1861- 1937). The ensuing intensive relationship with the married woman lasted until 1899. But even after their separation Lou Andreas-Salomé continued to be Rilke's most important confidant until the end of his life. Because she had trained from 1912 to 1913 as a psychoanalyst with Sigmund Freud she was able to impart knowledge of psychoanalysis to Rilke.
In 1898 Rilke undertook a journey lasting several weeks to Italy. In both following years he visited Russia. In 1899 he travelled to Moscow, where he met Leo Tolstoy. Between May and August of 1900 a second journey to Russia accompanied only by Lou Andreas-Salomé again took him to Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In autumn 1900 Rilke stayed in Worpswede where he got to know the sculptress Clara Westhoff ( 1878- 1954), whom he married in the following spring. Their daughter Ruth ( 1901- 1972) was born in December 1901. However, as soon as summer 1902 Rilke left home and travelled to Paris in order to write a monograph of the sculptor Auguste Rodin ( 1840- 1917). The relationship between Rilke and Clara Westhoff continued for the rest of his life but he was not one for a middle-class family life. Besides which he had financial worries which could only be alleviated by drudging commissioned work.