Richard Dehmel - Life, Literary work, Works

Poet, born in Brandenburg, EC Germany. He wrote intellectual verse showing the influence of Nietzsche. His works include Weib und Welt (1896, Woman and World) and Schöne wilde Welt (1913, Beautiful, Wild World).

Life

Dehmel, son of a forester, finished school in 1882 in Berlin and studied natural sciences, economy and philosophy at the university.

In 1889, he married Paula Oppenheimer.

In 1899, he divorced Paula and traveled through Europe, together with Ida Auerbach, whom he married in 1901, and settled in Hamburg the same year.

Literary work

Dehmel is considered one of the foremost German poets of the pre-World War I era. His poems were set to music by composers like Richard Strauss, Max Reger, Arnold Schönberg and Kurt Weill, or inspired them to write music. Dehmel's main theme was "love and sex (Eros)", which he conventionalized as a power to break free from middle class bounds.

Works

Erlösungen, poems 1891 Aber die Liebe, poems 1893 Weib und Welt, poems 1896 Zwei Menschen. Roman in Romanzen, 1903 Die Verwandlungen der Venus, poems 1907 Michel Michael, comedy 1911 Schöne wilde Welt, poems 1913 Die Menschenfreunde, Drama 1917 Mein Leben, autobiography 1922 (postum)