Editing Hugo Ball (section)

== Life and work ==
Hugo Ball was born in [[Pirmasens]], Germany, and was raised in a middle-class Catholic family.<ref name=Diary>Ball, Hugo (1974). ''Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary by Hugo Ball''. trans. Ann Raimes. New York: Viking Press. {{ISBN|0-670-31841-8}}. {{ISBN|0-670-31841-8}}, {{ISBN|0-670-31841-8}}, {{ISBN|0-670-31841-8}}, {{ISBN|0-670-31841-8}}.</ref> He studied sociology and philosophy at the universities of [[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich|Munich]] and [[Heidelberg University|Heidelberg]] (1906–1907). In 1910, he moved to Berlin in order to become an actor and collaborated with [[Max Reinhardt]]. At the beginning of World War I, he tried joining the army as a volunteer, but was denied enlistment for medical reasons. After witnessing the invasion of Belgium, he was disillusioned, saying: "The war is founded on a glaring mistake – men have been confused with machines." Considered a traitor in his country, he crossed the frontier with the cabaret performer and poet [[Emmy Hennings]], whom he would marry in 1920, and settled in Zürich, Switzerland. There, Ball continued his interest in [[anarchism]] and in [[Mikhail Bakunin]] in particular; he also worked on a book of translations of works by Bakunin, which never got published. Although interested in anarchist philosophy, he nonetheless rejected it for its militant aspects, and viewed it as only a means to his personal goal of socio-political enlightenment.<ref>"I have examined myself carefully. I could never bid chaos welcome, blow up bridges, and do away with ideas. I am not an anarchist." ''Flight out of Time'', Introduction. University of California Press (1996)</ref>

In 1916, Hugo Ball created the [[Dada Manifesto]], making a political statement about his views on the terrible state of society and acknowledging his dislike for philosophies of the past that claimed to possess the ultimate truth. In the manifesto Ball aimed to legitimize the new artistic movement's ambition to not merely "write poetry with words", but to "write poetry out of the words", to create an entirely new language, because the old language was viewed as "doomed", and "ruined by the filthy hands of capital". The central thought of modernism since [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]] regarding that the language has to be fixed, is here given a distinctive [[critique of economy]] as a motivation.<ref>Mortensen, A. (2005). Skönhetens nytta. Om uppkomsten av konstnärligt värde under den skotska upplysningen. Res Publica, 66. p.3-4</ref> The same year as the ''Manifesto'', in 1916, Ball wrote his poem "{{lang|de|Karawane|italic=no}}," a poem consisting of nonsensical words. The meaning, however, resides in its meaninglessness, reflecting the chief principle behind Dadaism. Some of his other best known works include the poem collection ''{{lang|de|7 schizophrene Sonette}}'', the drama ''{{lang|de|Die Nase des Michelangelo}}'', a memoir of the Zürich period ''Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary'', and a biography of [[Hermann Hesse]], entitled ''{{lang|de|Hermann Hesse. Sein Leben und sein Werk}}'' (1927).

{{Multiple image|total_width=400
|image1=Hugo ball karawane.png|width1=366|height1=560|caption1=Ball's 1916 poem, "{{lang|de|Karawane|italic=no}}"
|image2=Hugo Ball Cabaret Voltaire.jpg|width2=507|height2=691|caption2=Ball, reading "Karawane", Club Voltaire, 1916}}

As co-founder of the [[Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)|Cabaret Voltaire]] and a magazine with the same name, ''[[Cabaret Voltaire (magazine)|Cabaret Voltaire]]'', in Zürich, he led the Dada movement in Zürich and is one of the people credited with naming the movement "Dada," by allegedly choosing the word at random from a dictionary. His companion and future wife, Emmy Hennings, was also a member of Dada.

His involvement with the Dada movement lasted approximately two years. He then worked for a short period as a journalist for ''{{ill|Die Freie Zeitung|de}}'' in Bern. After returning to Catholicism in July 1920, Ball retired to the [[Cantons of Switzerland|canton]] of [[Ticino]], where he lived a religious and relatively poor life with Emmy Hennings. He contributed to the journal ''[[Hochland (magazine)|Hochland]]'' during this time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mehring|first=Reinhard|title=Carl Schmitt: A Biography|year=2014|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-5224-5|pages=151–153}}</ref> He also began the process of revising his diaries from 1910 to 1921, which were later published under the title ''Die Flucht aus der Zeit'' (Flight Out of Time). These diaries provide a wealth of information concerning the people and events of the Zürich Dada movement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/ball-hugo/|title=Hugo Ball Performances, Bio, Ideas|website=The Art Story}}</ref> He died in [[Sant'Abbondio (Gentilino)]], Switzerland, of stomach cancer on 14 September 1927.<ref name=Diary />