André Heller

Franz André Heller (born March 22, 1947) is an Austrian artist, author, singer and actor. Heller was born in Vienna into a wealthy Jewish family of sweets manufacturers ("Gustav & Wilhelm Heller"). His almost daily visits to the Café Hawelka were in his opinion a key element in the development of his literary orientation. It was in this coffeehouse that he met many men of letters including Friedrich Torberg, H. C. Artmann und occasionally Elias Canetti as well as Hans Weigel and Helmut Qualtinger, with whom he later on collaborated and performed. He took acting classes from Hans Weigel and his cohabitee Elfriede Ott. Heller has been writing prose, poetry, and songs since 1964. He left school shortly before obtaining the Matura, (he went...