Biography

Hanna Maria DRACK
née BÖRNER            
10 June 1913  –  16 September 1988


In 1913 Hanna Maria Drack is baptized as Marie Elisabet Johanna BÖRNER. In the town of Penig on the Mulde River in central Germany she is raised with much love by her parents Emma Marie Börner and Paul Julius Börner.

Börner Hannel,as she is often called in her home town, shows her creativity by writing down her thoughts already in primary school. Words and language itself captivate her. While still in school some of her works are published in the local press, making her the regional poet. 

Johanna Börner has many interests. One of her great passions is music. Her hard-working parents allow her to take piano lessons from an excellent pianist, the favorite student of Engelbert Humperdinck. Johanna Börner is also an enthusiastic member of the choir Gemischter Chor Penig.

In 1929 Johanna Börner completes her high-school education in Penig with outstanding success.

Dance, drama, gymnastics, foreign languages, stenography, correspondence with pen-pals around the globe - all these and much more are of great interest to the young Börner Hannel. She attends the Dance School in Glauchau, is a member of the Jungluisen and the Shorthand Writers Association. 
She also studies French and Italian at the Berlitz School of Languages in Chemnitz.

Thanks to her excellent knowledge of English she is also highly desired as an English instructor and gives lessons as far as her busy schedule permits.


1929

Johanna Börner's professional life starts.



Between 1932 and 1933 the barely 19-year-old Johanna Börner spends one year in England and enhances her English language skills. During this time she lives in Selwood and Sandbanks on the estate of an English family with children, of whom she grows very fond. She makes several new friendships abroad that last a lifetime.

1933

Back in Germany, the following ten years are taken up by industrial management and foreign language correspondence (German, English, French, Italian).
She finds it easy to compose reports and speeches in either rhyme or prose, both for business and private occasions, even in English.



1939
Always open to new experiences, instead of going by train, Johanna Börner for the first time travels on a commercial flight from Leipzig to Frankfurt am Main.
1941
In September she marries in Bautzen and relocates to Scharnstein, Upper Austria, to her husband's family.

1942-1943
Parental visit in Penig
Professional commitment in Berlin

Almtal Valley in Upper Austria
Almsee Lake with Totes Gebirge
Mountain Range
From spring 1943 onwards she lives continuously in the eastern Salzkammergut, the Almtal Valley, between Gmunden and Kirchdorf on the Krems River in Upper Austria.

1943-1954 
Birth of her four children

In addition to Hanna Maria Drack's role as a loving and committed mother, wife and housewife, she devotes herself to her literary activities whenever possible. Her constant companions are the typewriter and shorthand notebook. As she did in her home region of Saxony, she describes the beauty of nature, landscapes and many places in the Salzkammergut, in Upper Austria, the whole of Austria as well as foreign countries she visits.
The idyllic home in the countryside provide Hanna Maria Drack with rich inspiration for her creative works, but because she was not able to leave home, did not offer an opportunity for direct participation in intellectual and cultural life. Beside her tireless activities as a writer, Hanna Maria Drack self-studies and takes intensive correspondence courses in Latin, Esperanto and Russian, to mention only a few.

1968-1974
After all her children were on their way to independence, Hanna Maria Drack has a little more time for writing, which she uses extensively.

Poetry reading, Vienna 1974


1974-1988
Hanna Maria Drack becomes a happy 12-time grandmother and besides her busy daily life spends time with her grandchildren.

Hanna Maria Drack with her grandson
in front of Belvedere Castle, Vienna 1979


1981-1987
Travels late in life
Finally there follow a few years during which she undertakes several journeys.
These take Hanna Maria Drack and her husband to four continents together with their daughter, visiting old friends and experiencing new cultures.

              Japan, Kyushu 1985

1988
In the midst of a creative period, Hanna Maria Drack is suddenly afflicted with a serious illness, which she tries to resist for many months with enormous courage, strength and a strong will to live.

She just misses the long-sought-after reunification of her home country Germany (1989), as well as the electronic age with the introduction of computers, the internet, email, video communication and mobile telephones, etc., which would certainly have given her creative output a significant positive impetus.


Hanna Maria Drack's final resting place
Viechtwang Churchyard in Scharnstein / Upper Austria 

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