In October 1922, the Viennese journalist Felix Salten wrote the first drafts of a story. Twenty years later, it would go on to conquer international movie theaters. What generations of moviegoers today remember as a heartwarming animated film was published in 1923 by Ullstein Verlag as an unvarnished drama for an adult audience.
A struggle for survival in Vienna instead of a colorful cartoon meadow
Salten’s work was published under the title *Bambi: A Life Story from the Forest* and chronicled the development of a fawn in the thicket. Unlike in the later film, the story was not shaped by cheerful forest companions, but rather by the brutal struggle for survival in the Vienna Woods. It also dealt with the constant threat of hunting. Contemporaries such as Karl Kraus noted the text’s ruthlessness, which literary historians today interpret as a parable of the threatened Jewish life in Vienna during the 1920s.
The $1,000 Deal with Hollywood
In 1933, the author sold all film rights for $1,000 to director Sidney Franklin, who passed the contract on to Walt Disney. When the animated film premiered in August 1942, the animators replaced the European roe deer with a North American white-tailed deer. While the film studio has grossed over $267 million at the box office to date, the original author received no royalties whatsoever.
Shortly thereafter, the situation escalated in his hometown: The Nazis banned the work in 1935 and destroyed the printed copies. After fleeing in March 1939, the writer lived in exile in Zurich without financial means, where he died in October 1945.
A Quiet Memorial on the Outskirts of Vienna
Anyone strolling through the Cottage District near Türkenschanzpark on cool autumn days will discover a quiet testament on the outer wall of Villa Salten. A bronze plaque at Cottagegasse 37 commemorates the fact that the most famous animal in film history was born in the 18th district. Just a 15-minute walk away, autumnal Vienna presents itself exactly as it inspired the author to write his lines over a century ago.
