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Walter Georg Alfred Hasenclever

ヴァルター・ゲオルク・アルフレート・ハーゼンクレーヴァー

Walter Georg Alfred Hasenclever

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1890-07-08 （Aachen, Germany）
Died
1940-06-22 （Les Milles, France） age 49
Nationality
German
Languages
German, French
Religion
Judaism
Residence History
Aachen (birthplace) → Oxford (studies) → Lausanne (studies) → Leipzig (studies/activity) → Dresden (sanatorium/recovery) → Paris (residence/correspondence) → Berlin (active period) → Nice (exile) → Les Milles (internment camp)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Playwright, Writer, Screenwriter, Journalist (French correspondent)
Active Years
1910-1940
Influenced By
Sophocles, Expressionism (movement)

Education

Oxford University
Faculty of Law
Period: 1908
Country: United Kingdom
Began studying law in 1908 but later changed course
University of Lausanne
Period: 1908–1909
Country: Switzerland
Transferred from Oxford and attended for a short period
University of Leipzig
Literature and Philosophy
Period: 1909–1914
Country: Germany
Became interested in literature and philosophy

Awards

Kleist Prize
1917
Work: Antigone (adaptation of Sophocles)
Organization: Kleist Prize committee
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Towns, Nights and People (Städte, Nächte und Menschen)

1910 Poetry collection

An early collection of poems portraying urban nights and fragments of human experience with an expressionist sensibility.

urban lifelonelinessnight

The Son (Der Sohn)

1914 Play (Expressionist drama)

A representative expressionist play depicting family and generational conflicts; achieved success in 1914.

familygenerational conflictrebellion

A Better Gentleman (Ein besserer Herr)

1926 Comedy (play)

A successful comedy first produced in 1926, containing satirical humor.

humorsocial satirehuman relations
Adaptations
  • [Film] Ein besserer Herr (1928)

Marriages are Made in Heaven (Ehen werden im Himmel geschlossen)

1928 Comedy (play)

A comedy that satirizes customs around love and marriage.

marriagelovesocial satire

Bibliography

  • Towns, Nights and People (1910)
  • The Son (1914)
  • Antigone (adaptation) (1917)
  • A Better Gentleman (1926)
  • Marriages are Made in Heaven (1928)

Adaptations

  • Ein besserer Herr (1928) film
  • Diary of a Coquette (1929) involvement
  • Love Songs (1930) involvement
  • Rendezvous (1930) involvement
  • Men Behind Bars (1931) involvement

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Expressionist intense emotional expressionPoetic, fragmentary imagerySymbolist techniques in drama
Recurring Motifs
rebellionfamily conflicturban lonelinessdeath and alienation

Health

  • Simulated mental illness
    1917
    Simulated to avoid military service in World War I; he recuperated in a sanatorium.

Legacy

An important poet and playwright of Expressionism. His works were suppressed and burned under the Nazis; postwar he has been commemorated with a namesake prize and continues to influence German-language writers.

Academic Societies

  • Walter-Hasenclever-Gesellschaft (Walter Hasenclever Society)

Archives

  • Project Gutenberg (works available)
  • Internet Archive (works and materials)

In Popular Culture

  • Film adaptations and screenwriting involvement in the 1920s–1930s
  • Memorial plaques and commemorations in places like Aachen

Trivia

  • His works were banned and burned after the Nazis came to power in 1933.
  • In 1940 he committed suicide with the barbiturate Veronal in the internment camp Camp des Milles to avoid falling into Nazi hands.
  • Since 1996 the Walter Hasenclever Prize has been awarded biennially to German-language writers.