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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2023
6 November 1880: Robert Musil born in St. Ruprecht near Klagenfurt January–July 1889: Illness, probably meningitis
End of January 1891: Family moves to Brünn [present-day Brno], where father takes up a Chair in Mechanical Engineering at the German Technical University
From November 1891: Friendship with Gustav Donath, whose portrait will be drawn as “Walter” in MoE
29 August 1892: Enters the Military Lower Technical School in Eisenstadt; acquaintanceship with the “class dictators,” Richard von Boyneburg-Lengsfeld and Jarto Reising, who will later feature in Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß
1 September 1894: Enters the Military Upper Technical School in Mährisch- Weißkirchen (until 31 August 1897)
September to December 1897: Attends Military Technical Academy, Vienna
January 1898: Enters the German Technical University in Brünn to study engineering; extracurricular reading includes works by Nietzsche, Emerson, Maeterlinck, Dostoyevsky, Altenberg, d’Annunzio, Hamsun
19 April 1900: First recorded publication — Variété-Theater (Variety Theater) in the Brünn Sunday newspaper
August 1900: On vacation, meets and falls in love with the pianist Valerie Hilpert; he leaves abruptly — the “Valerie experience,” intensified by the parting, informs later writing
18 July 1901: Passes engineering examinations with the mark “very competent”
October 1901–September 1902: Military service in Brünn with an Imperial Austro-Hungarian Infantry Regiment; meets Max Becher, who later becomes one of the models for General Stumm von Bordwehr in MoE
Winter 1901: Meets Herma Dietz, a worker in a fabric shop in Brünn; she becomes his mistress
March 1901: Spends time with Gustl Donath in Vienna and probably meets Alice Charlemont who will later become Donath's wife; Alice will be the model for Clarisse in MoE; she is also partly represented in the figure of Regine in Die Schwärmer
2 March 1902: Musil notes in his diary that he is undergoing treatment for syphilis; the fear of a recurrence of the disease will stay with him for decades
8 May 1902: Start of Nietzsche readings that last for many months. Nietzsche will be a dominant intellectual influence on his writings
October 1902: Accompanied by Herma Dietz, moves to Stuttgart, taking up a post as honorary assistant in the Institute for Materials Testing; starts to write Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß; begins to learn Latin and Greek in preparation for matriculation for university study
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