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Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Photo: Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
Along with Franz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke is one of the world's most important German-language authors of modern literature.
It has now become known that the estate of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke is to be kept in the German Literature Archive in Marbach in the future.
The purchase was financed, among other things, by several foundations, the federal government and the state of Baden-Württemberg, as a spokeswoman for the archive announced on Tuesday.
She declined to name the purchase price.
"It's a once-in-a-century acquisition."
The estate has so far been kept in the family archives in Gernsbach, Baden.
It had been privately owned for almost 100 years.
Rilke, who lived from 1875 to 1926, is best known for his poetry.
One of Rilke's most famous poems is »The Panther«.
But he is also praised for his correspondence with famous contemporaries.
Details of the purchase are to be announced at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday.
cbu/dpa
