Walter Hasenclever | |
|---|---|
 Hasencleverc. 1917 | |
| Born | Walter Georg Alfred Hasenclever (1890-07-08)8 July 1890 Aachen, Germany |
| Died | 22 June 1940(1940-06-22) (aged 49) Les Milles, France |
| Occupation | Poet, Playwright |
| Nationality | German |
| Literary movement | Expressionism |
| Notable works | The Son (1914) |
Walter Georg Alfred Hasenclever (8 July 1890 – 22 June 1940) was aGerman JewishExpressionist poet and playwright. His works were banned when the Nazis came to power and he went into exile inFrance. There he was imprisoned as a "foreign enemy". He died inLes Milles (Camp des Milles) nearAix-en-Provence.
Born inAachen,Germany, the son of the doctor Carl Georg Hasenclever (1855–1934) and his wife Mathilde Anna (née Reiss; 1869–1953), Walter Hasenclever began studyinglaw atOxford University in 1908 before changing to theUniversity of Lausanne. From 1909 to 1914 he studied inLeipzig, where he became interested inliterature andphilosophy.
In 1910 he published his first volume of poems,Towns, nights and people (Städte, Nächte und Menschen). In 1914 his playThe Son (Der Sohn) was his first successfulExpressionist drama.
At first, Hasenclever was pro-war and volunteered formilitary service. Soon he came to reject the war, simulatedmental illness, and was released from duty in 1917. That same year he was presented with theKleist Prize for his passionate adaptation ofSophocles'Antigone. He was a good friend of the artistOskar Kokoschka who depicted him in his 1918 work "The Friends" withKäthe Richter inDresden, where Hasenclever was recuperating from his supposed illness in a sanatorium.
In 1924, Hasenclever metKurt Tucholsky; at this time he worked as a French correspondent for the magazine8-Uhr-Abendblatt, spending a lot of time inParis, where he also befriended the dramatistJean Giraudoux. In 1926 he produced the successfulcomedyA Better Gentleman (Ein besserer Herr) and in 1928 the comedyMarriages are Made in Heaven (Ehen werden im Himmel geschlossen). In 1930, he wrote scripts forMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer forGreta Garbo; at this time he lived inBerlin in an "artists' colony".
When theNational Socialists took power in 1933, his works were banned, burned during thebook burning, then removed from libraries. Hasenclever went intoexile inNice. In 1934, he married Edith Schläfer there.
During theSecond World War Hasenclever was imprisoned twice as a "foreign enemy" in France. When France fell to Germany, he was in the prison camp ofCamp des Milles in the south-east of France. In the early hours of 22 June 1940 he killed himself with an overdose of thebarbiturateVeronal,[1] so as not to fall into the hands of the Nazis.
Since 1996 the Walter Hasenclever Prize has been awarded to a German-language writer every two years. Winners have includedPeter Rühmkorf (1996),George Tabori (1998),Oskar Pastior (2000),Marlene Steerewitz (2002) andFriedrich Christian Delius (2004). The funds come from the Walter Hasenclever Society (Walter-Hasenclever-Gesellschaft) as well as the town ofAachen, theSchiller Society, and Hasenclever's old school, the Einhard Gymnasium.
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