Manon Gropius [SEP] mother
Manon Gropius
Alma Manon Gropius (October 5, 1916 – April 22, 1935) was the daughter of the architect Walter Gropius and the composer and diarist Alma Mahler and the stepdaughter of the novelist and poet Franz Werfel. She is a "Randfigur" (peripheral person) whose importance lies in her key relationships to major figures: a muse who inspired the composer Alban Berg as well as Werfel and the Nobel Prize-winning writer Elias Canetti. Manon Gropius is most often cited as the "angel" and dedicatee of
bureaucrat named Erich Cyhlar, to court Manon, in the hopes that pending nuptials would compel her to walk again.
In mid-April, Manon gave her mother and stepfather a private performance in their home. Then, over Holy Week, she suffered breathing problems and organ failure. She had been receiving an aggressive form of diathermy that employed X-ray machines, which can induce iatrogenic complications.
Manon Gropius died on Easter Monday, April 22, 1935, and was buried in in a ceremony that is also