Richard Beer-Hoffman was born in Vienna, the son of Hermann Beer, a Jewish Moravian lawyer. His mother died while giving him birth. Later, his maternal uncle, Herman Hofmann, a Viennese industrialist, adopted him. In 1884, Beer added his foster-father’s family name to his own.
As a young man he served as a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Beer-Hofmann graduated as Doctor of Jurisprudence at the University of Vienna in 1890, but never practiced the legal profession. Occasionally he directed a few plays: in 1928 Goethe’s ‘Iphigenia’ at the Theater an der Josefstadt, Vienna, at the Salzburg Festival in 1930 and at Deutsche Theater, Berlin. In the same year he staged his own one-night version of Goethe’s ‘Faust’ I and II at the Burgtheater, Vienna.
Beer-Hoffmann joined the Young Vienna literary circle. He and his friends: Arthur Schnitzler, Peter Altenberg, Felix Dormann, Felix Salten, Hugo von Hofmannstahl and other artists frequented the Cafe Grienstadl, where they discussed art, religion and politics. He was also on friendly terms with Theodor Herzl.
Beer-Hofmann published his first short story in 1891. More significant was his novelette Das Kind (1893). His most famous lyric Schlaflied fuer Miriam, was written for his first-born daughter, Miriam. Beer-Hoffman disliked his colleagues’ egocentric, pleasure and fame-seeking motives and he sought after meaning in his Judaism. An example of his feelings is his only novel Der Tod Georgs, published in 1900. In the novel the hero, an Epicurean, decides to abandon his self-centered existence, discovers himself as a Jew, and joins his people’s struggle for justice. His first play Der Graf von Charlois (1904) and his poem Altern (1907) also reflect his emphasis on unity of tradition, which binds the individual to his ancestral past. His trilogy of plays: Jaakobs Traum (1918), Der Junge David (1918), and Vorspiel auf dem ‘Theater zu Konig David’ (1936), of which only a small part was ever completed, are based on biblical themes. In his plays Beer-Hofmann expounds his belief that the individual, and people in general, are important only to the extent that their welfare confers with that of humanity at large.
Beer-Hofmann received: the Volks-Schillerpreis, Goethe Bund, Berlin (1905), and the Raimund Preis, Vienna (1921). In 1936 he visited the Palestine. He resumed his work on his trilogy when he returned to Vienna. In August 1939 he fled from the Nazi regime to Switzerland, where he lost his wife, Paula. In November 1939 he emigrated to the U.S.A., and lived in New York with his daughters and son in-law, Ernest Lens. Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Universities and Smith College invited him to join their faculty. His Verse (1941) contains all the poems that he wished preserved. In his posthumous fragment Paula (1949), a tribute to his wife, having also some autobiographical elements, reflects the autumnal mood of Austria, as it influenced his life and shaped his personality.
After World War II, the Burgtheater of Vienna restored Jaakobs Traum to its repertoire. The American Academy of Arts and Letters conferred a distinguished award upon him. He also gained appreciation from Jewish institutions. Within Jewish circles he was considered as a symbol of Jewish dignity, for while still in Austria he placed a Shield of David over the entrance of his house, thus signifying to all that the Jewish fate was his fate. The Jewish National Fund issued a Beer-Hofmann memorial stamp. The Jewish Publication Society of America published an English translation of Jaakobs Traum. In Hebrew it has been played on stage by Habima in Moscow, Tel Aviv and New York.
Beer-Hofmann died in New York in 1945.