Editing Stefan George

{{short description|German symbolist poet and translator}}
{{distinguish|text=[[Stefan Georg]], the linguist}}
{{Lead too short|date=September 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name          = Stefan George
| image         = Stefan George 1910 Foto Jakob Hilsdorf.jpg
| caption       = 1910 photograph
| imagesize     =
| alt           =
| birth_name    = Stefan Anton George
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1868|7|12|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Bingen am Rhein|Büdesheim]], [[Grand Duchy of Hesse]], German Empire
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1933|12|4|1868|6|12|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Minusio]], Ticino, Switzerland
| occupation    = Poet
| awards        = [[Goethe Prize]] (1927)
| language      = German
| spouse        =
}}
[[File:Wohnhaus Stefan Georges in Königstein, Limburger Str. 19.JPG|thumb|From 1921 George spent his summers in the hills on the south-western edge of [[Frankfurt am Main|Frankfurt]] at this house in [[Königstein im Taunus|Königstein]], where he was attended by his sister, Anna.]]

'''Stefan Anton George''' ({{IPA|de|ˈʃtɛfan ˈʔantoːn ɡeˈ(ʔ)ɔʁɡə|lang}}; 12 July 1868{{spaced ndash}}4 December 1933) was a German [[Symbolism (movement)|symbolist]] [[poet]] and a translator of [[Dante Alighieri]], [[William Shakespeare]], [[Hesiod]], and [[Charles Baudelaire]]. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literary circle called the {{lang|de|[[George-Kreis]]}} and for founding the [[literary magazine]] ''{{ill|Blätter für die Kunst|de}}'' ({{gloss|Journal for the Arts}}).

==Biography==
===Early life===
George was born in 1868 in {{ill|Büdesheim (Bingen am Rhein)|de|Büdesheim (Bingen am Rhein)|lt=Büdesheim in Bingen}} (now part of [[Bingen am Rhein|Bingen]]) in the [[Grand Duchy of Hesse]]. His father, also named Stefan George, was an innkeeper and wine merchant, and his mother Eva (née Schmitt) was a homemaker. When Stefan was five years old, the family moved to [[Bingen am Rhein]].{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=13}}

According to Michael and Erika Metzger, both sides of the George family had lived in the area for generations and had risen from peasants, to millers, and finally to merchants.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=13}}

At the time, the [[Roman Catholic Church in Germany|Roman Catholic Church]] was very important to the daily life of [[Bingen am Rhein]] and to the George family. Life revolved around the feast days of the [[Liturgical Calendar]]. Furthermore, when Stefan's mother died, the [[oleander]] trees she had planted when she had married her husband were donated to the nuns of the nearby [[Rochusberg]], which symbolized a returning of God's gifts back to Him.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=14}}

After attending [[primary school]] in Bingen, Stefan was sent, at the age of thirteen, to one of the best [[secondary school]]s in the [[Grand Duchy of Hesse]], the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in the Grand-Duke [[Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse|Louis IV]]'s capital city of [[Darmstadt]]. There, from 1882 to 1888, Stefan, "received a vigorous humanistic education in which Greek, Latin, and French were stressed."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|pp=14–15}}

Stefan "excelled in French" and gained "a thorough knowledge of modern European literature, as well as of the Greek and Roman authors."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=15}}

Although later described as a loner, Stefan assembled his first circle of friends in Darmstadt, where he had access to libraries and to the theater, which fascinated him. He also taught himself to read Norwegian in order to read the works of [[Henrik Ibsen]] in the original language.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=15}}

===Making of a poet===
At the age of nineteen, George and a few other students of the Gymnasium started a [[literary journal]] called {{lang|de|Rosen und Disteln}} ({{gloss|Roses and Thistles}}). Here George published his first poems under the [[pseudonym]] Edmund Delorme. Even though the Gymnasium emphasized the poetry of the [[German Romanticism|German Romantics]], George taught himself [[Italian language|Italian]], in order to both read and translate the [[Renaissance]] poets whom he most revered. His first poems consisted of [[literary translation]]s and [[mimesis|imitations]] of the [[Italian poetry]] of [[Petrarch]] and [[Torquato Tasso]].{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=15}}

When his schooling was concluded in 1888, it was clear to George and to his family that it would not work for him to follow the usual course into university, business, or the German [[civil service]]. Instead he began to travel.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|pp=17–18}}

He later told a friend, "Germany was intolerable then; just think of [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]]! I would have thrown a bomb if they had kept me here; or I would have perished like Nietzsche. My father was glad to get rid of me, for he sensed the danger."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=18}}

Hoping to improve his grasp of [[English language|English]], George lived in [[London]] between May and October 1888. [[Queen Victoria]] was on the throne and London was still the capital of the global [[British Empire]]. George later recalled that in England he saw, "an expansive sense of life, borne by great political tasks and goals, an ancient cultural unity which carefully preserved traditions, a firmly moded way of life for all classes of the populace, a decorous politeness among all the people, phenomena which were no longer found in the Germany of those years, or which were just beginning to emerge."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=18}}

It is also believed to have been during his time in London that George first encountered the [[English poetry]] the "honored masters" [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]], [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]], and [[Ernest Dowson]], whose works George would later translate into German and publish in his homeland.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=18}}

While briefly returning to Germany and his parental home in Bingen, George expressed a desire to convene a "Congress" of like-minded poets and to publish a collection of their works.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|pp=18–19}}

This was an idea deeply rooted in both the [[Western Canon]] and in [[German literature]], as [[Goethe]], [[Schiller]], and the other [[German Romanticism|German Romantic poets]] had circles of adherents who gathered around them. Even before that, [[Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock]] had referred to his closest friends as, {{lang|de|die wenigen Edlen}} ({{gloss|the noble few}}) and had made detailed plans for {{lang|de|Die Gelehrtenrepublik}} ({{gloss|The Republic of Scholars}}).{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=22}}

During his subsequent tours of [[Switzerland]] and northern [[Italy]], George played the title role in a production of [[Moliere]]'s {{lang|fr|[[Le Misanthrope]]}} performed at [[Montreux]]. George later recalled, "Can you imagine anything more contradictory than that I, the [[socialism|socialist]], [[communard]], [[atheist]], should play in a comedy with a German baron in the house of a professor of theology surrounded by a whole bevy of society ladies?"{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=19}}

Suffering from severe loneliness, George arrived in [[Paris]] in May 1889. On his first day there, he met the French poet Albert Saint-Paul, through whom George was introduced into the city's [[Bohemianism|literary bohemia]]. Despite the intensely [[Germanophobia|anti-German]] [[revanchism]] reigning over [[French culture]] during the [[Belle Époque]], George found himself "spontaneously accepted by his peers." Through Albert Saint-Paul, George was introduced to [[Paul Verlaine]], [[Francis Vielé-Griffin]], [[Albert Mockel]], and [[Waclaw Rolicz-Lieder]].{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=19}}

Saint-Paul also persuaded the poet [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] to invite George to attend the Tuesday [[Symbolism (art)|Symbolist]] [[soirée]]s held in, "that little room in the Rue de Rome". George had been described to Mallarmé as resembling "the young [[Goethe]] before ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther|Werther]]''". When they met, Mallarmé received George warmly, particularly when the latter revealed that he had recently begun translating [[Charles Baudelaire]]'s {{lang|fr|[[Les Fleurs du Mal]]}} into German.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|pp=19–20}}

Many years later, the members of Mallarmé's circle were to recall that they immediately identified Stefan George as, "a poet of unusual promise." Despite his confidence, George seemed extremely shy and rarely participated in the circle's discussions, preferring instead to listen and learn. Meanwhile, George also filled 365 pages with poems by French and other European authors, many of which he was later to translate into German.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=20}}

According to the Metzgers, "For the Symbolists, the pursuit of '[[art for art's sake]]' was a highly serious – nearly a sacred – function, since beauty, in and of itself, stood for a higher meaning beyond itself. In their ultimate higher striving, the French Symbolists are not far from the [[Platonism|Platonic]] ideals of [[Transcendentals|the Good, the True, and the Beautiful]], and this idealistic aspect was undoubtedly what appealed to George far more than the [[Aestheticism|Estheticism]], the [[Bohemianism]], and the apparent [[Nihilism]] so often superficially associated with this group."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=21}}

[[Paul Verlaine]] and [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] were the only living poets whom George considered his superiors and whose apprentice he ever wished to be. Particularly Mallarmé, whose circle of disciples called him {{lang|fr|Le Maître}} ({{gloss|The Master}}), was to be a lifelong model for George's art, philosophy, and way of life.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|pp=21–22}}

The French Symbolists were every bit as enthusiastic for George, as is revealed by the evidence of their surviving letters and subsequent memoirs of his visit to Paris, which were published in a 1928 theme issue of the {{lang|fr|Revue d'Allemagne}}. George wrote in 1896, "Paris, the only place where I found and possess true friends."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=22}}

At this time, George felt a very intense hostility to what he saw as the [[banality]] and [[philistinism]] of [[German culture]] during the [[German Empire]]. In his subsequent poem {{lang|de|Franken}} ({{gloss|Frankish Lands}}), which celebrates his visit to Paris and "whose title recalls the original unity of Germany and France under [[Charlemagne]]", George denounced the [[militarism]] and expansionism of the Imperial Government, "the complacent [[Economic materialism|materialism]] of the German [[middle class]]", and the hostility to German artists, poets, and intellectuals. George asked the [[German people]], "Where is your bard, you proud and boastful race?" He then answered that there was no one, as the German people had driven [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] insane and forced [[Arnold Böcklin]] into exile.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|pp=22–23}} Even so, "Stefan George's experience in Paris during the early 1890's ... impelled him to return to Germany to give a new voice and form to [[German poetry]]."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=39}}

==={{lang|de|Blätter für die Kunst}}===
After returning to Germany, George first began to study [[Romance languages]] and their literature at [[Humboldt University|Friedrich Wilhelm University]] in [[Berlin]], where he remained for three semesters.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=23}}

At the time, George had serious doubts about the ability of the [[German language]] to say what he wished to say in his poems. For this reason, he preferred instead to write [[French poetry|French]] and [[Spanish poetry]] and even invented a language which he dubbed [[Pan-Romance language#Lingua Romana|Lingua Romana]], which combined words from [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Latin language|Latin]] with [[German syntax]].{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=23}}

George also seriously considered emigrating to [[Mexico]] at the urging of a wealthy Mexican family he had met and befriended in Paris. When George saw the family off on a ship back to Mexico, he gave them a copy of the first collection of his poems in German, {{lang|de|Hymnen}} ({{gloss|Odes}}), which had just been privately printed in a limited edition of 100 copies.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|pp=23–24}}

Also while living in Berlin, George joined forces with fellow student Carl August Klein to found the annual [[literary magazine]] entitled ''{{ill|Blätter für die Kunst|de}}''. At the time, George felt that German poets had been reduced to two main [[literary movement]]s, both of which he opposed. The first was for a poet to be "a provider of a pleasant diversion", or as [[Arno Holz]] called such poetry, "a lilac-sweet spring rhapsode". The other role was for a poet to become a [[Literary realism|Naturalist]]ic [[social critic]], or what George sarcastically termed, "an apostle of reality". Stefan George and Carl Klein therefore intended for {{lang|de|Blätter für die Kunst}} to be a vehicle for what they termed "the new art", which was intended to both build upon and supersede both literary movements within [[German poetry]], while also drawing upon the ideas of the French Symbolists.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=24}}

While George was not the first German poet to draw inspiration from the French Symbolists, he has been termed, "the most gifted, eloquent, and productive exponent of the poetic aspects of the movement in his homeland". George also, "did not slavishly follow any masters", but set his own stamp upon those aspects of Symbolism that he found appropriate for his purpose of revitalizing [[German culture]] and [[German literature]].{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=22}}

George was the main person of the literary and academic group known as the {{lang|de|[[George-Kreis]]}} ({{gloss|George Circle}}), which included some of the major, young writers of the time such as [[Friedrich Gundolf]] and [[Ludwig Klages]]. In addition to sharing cultural interests, the group promoted mystical and political themes. George knew and befriended the "Bohemian Countess" of [[Schwabing]], [[Fanny zu Reventlow]], who sometimes satirised the group for its melodramatic actions and opinions. George and his writings were identified with the [[Conservative Revolutionary movement|Conservative Revolutionary philosophy]]. He was [[homosexual]], yet exhorted his young friends to have a celibate life like his own.{{sfn|Boehringer|1967|pp=126–127}}{{sfn|Karlauf|2007}}{{Page needed|date=September 2024}}

===Ida Coblenz===
In 1892, Stefan George met [[Ida Dehmel|Ida Coblenz]], a wealthy and cultured [[German Jew]]ish heiress who not only admired his poetry but also demonstrated deep insight into his work. Their meeting took place in [[Bingen am Rhein]]. Many of George’s poems in ''Preisgedichte'' (1895), ''Das Jahr der Seele'' (1897), and even ''Der siebente Ring'' (1907) were inspired by her.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=30}}Years later, George told his friends that there had once been a woman who was “my world.”{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

George saw Ida often, particularly in the fall of 1894 and the summer of 1896. Ida's brief and unhappy [[Shidduch|arranged marriage]] to Leopold Auerbach, a Jewish businessman from [[Berlin]], did nothing to interrupt her relationship with George. When Ida, however, began a relationship with the married poet [[Richard Dehmel]], whom she later married in 1901, George viewed Ida's decision as a betrayal of the worst order. Dehmel, due to his [[Marxism]], [[Bohemianism]], and "sensual glorification of life as it is", stood for everything that George detested in [[German poetry]] in [[German Empire|Imperial Germany]].{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|pp=30–31}}

After meeting Dehmel before Coblenz's house in Bingen, George wrote to her, "Our [friendship] arises from the fact that each of us is able to communicate what he thinks great and noble to the other – it rises and falls with this ability – and disappears entirely when something appears great and noble to one which is brutal and debased to the other."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=31}}

George had been planning to dedicate his 1897 poetry collection {{lang|de|Das Jahr der Seele}} to Ida Coblenz. Instead, the name of George's sister was printed where that of Ida Coblenz was intended to have stood.{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=31}}

===World War I and rise of the Nazi Party===
During 1914, at the start of the World War, George foretold a sad end for Germany. In 1916, in a deliberate revolt against the [[jingoist]]ic [[literary movement]] known as {{lang|de|Hurrah-Patriotismus}}, which was overwhelmingly popular on the German home-front during the [[First World War]], George wrote and published the pessimistic poem {{lang|de|Der Krieg}} ({{gloss|"The War"}}).

The outcome of the war was the realization of his worst fears. In the 1920s, George despised the culture of Germany, particularly its bourgeois mentality and archaic church rites. He wished to create a new, noble German culture, and offered "form", regarded as a mental discipline and a guide to relationships with others, as an ideal while Germany was in a period of social, political, spiritual and artistic decadence.{{sfn|Kramarz|1967|pp=29–30}}

George's poetry was discovered by the small but ascendant Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ([[NSDAP]]), a precursor to Nazism, which had its roots in [[Bavaria]].{{clarify|reason=Not clear if this is meant to refer to the [[German Workers' Party]].|date=September 2024}} George's concepts of "the thousand year Reich" and "fire of the blood" were adopted by the NSDAP and incorporated into the party's propaganda. George would come to detest their racial theories, especially the notion of the "[[Nordicism|Nordic superman]]".{{sfn|Kramarz|1967|pp=31–32}}

According to Peter Hoffmann, Stefan George "had a low opinion of Hitler, in whom he saw none of the greatness of a [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] or a [[Napoleon]]". Shortly before Hitler became Chancellor on 30 January 1933, "the poet said that if the National Socialists came to power, everyone in Germany would have to wear a noose around his neck, and those who refused would be hanged immediately."{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=67}}

In February 1933, the Nazis began dismissing all of their political opponents as well as Jews from the [[Prussian Academy of the Arts]]; this included [[Thomas Mann]], [[René Schickele]], [[Georg Kaiser]], and [[Franz Werfel]]. They were replaced with politically reliable "national writers", such as [[Hans Grimm]] and [[Hans Carossa]].{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=66}}

By April 1933, George was referring to the National Socialists as "hangmen." He also assigned the youngest of his followers, Karl Josef Partsch, to talk Frank Mehnert out of joining any Nazi-affiliated organizations.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=67}}

On 5 May 1933 the Prussian Minister for Sciences, Arts, and Public Education, [[Bernhard Rust]], informed George that the new government wished to appoint him to an honorary position within the academy. Rust further explained that he intended to publicly describe George as the forefather of the [[Nazi Party]]'s "national revolution", and also offered him a large sum of money to do with as he wished. If George was agreeable to the proposal, President [[Paul von Hindenburg]] or Chancellor [[Adolf Hitler]] would personally write the official letter.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=66}}

On 10 May 1933 George replied by letter. He declined both the money and the honorary position "in the so-called academy", but said that he approved of its "national" orientation. George explained, however, that he had administered [[German literature]] for five decades without any need for an academy. On the other hand, George did not deny his "ancestorship of the new national movement and did not preclude his intellectual cooperation".{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=66}}

There were those within the Nazi Party, however, who were enraged by George's negative response to the offer, who suspected the sincerity of his claims of sympathy for the national revolution, and who even denounced Stefan George by calling him a Jew.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=67}}

In order to renew his passport, George returned to his native [[Bingen am Rhein]] at the beginning of July 1933, but left for [[Berlin-Dahlem]] just four days before his 65th birthday. Some historians believe that this was a deliberate effort to evade official honors from the new government. However, the new Government made no further efforts beyond a personal telegram of congratulations from Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]].{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=67}}

===Death in exile===
On 25 July 1933 George travelled to [[Wasserburg am Bodensee|Wasserburg]] on [[Lake Constance]], where he remained for four weeks. He was joined there at various times by Frank Mehnert, [[Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg|Berthold von Stauffenberg]], [[Claus von Stauffenberg]], and other younger members of the {{lang|de|George-Kreis}}.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=67}}

On 24 August 1933 George took a ferry across the lake to [[Heiden, Switzerland|Heiden]], [[Switzerland]]. Although George had chosen to make the journey to escape the humid lakeside air and had spent the previous two winters at [[Minusio]], George later said, in an example of his "mild political humor", that in the middle of the lake he began to breathe far more easily.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|pp=67–68}}

Berthold von Stauffenberg arrived at [[Minusio]] on 27 September 1933, shortly after the attending the wedding at [[Bamberg]] of his brother Claus to Baroness [[Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg|Nina von Lerchenfeld]], and found George feeling very weak and devoid of appetite.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|pp=71–72}}

That same month, however, George declared that both his way of life and his friendships were sufficient proof of his tolerance and indifference to all religions.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=66}}{{Relevance inline|sentence|date=September 2024}}

In November 1933, Frank Mehnert spread the news that George's medical condition was very grave. Mehnert, [[Robert Boehringer]], Walter Kempner, and Clotilde Schlayer took turns keeping vigil at his hospital bedside. When Karl Josef Partsch, [[Albrecht von Blumenthal]], Walter Anton, Ludwig Thormaehlen, and the three Stauffenberg brothers also arrived, they were allowed a brief glimpse of George in his darkened room; but the poet was not aware of their presence.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|pp=72–73}}

Stefan George died at Minusio on 4 December 1933. Although Berthold von Stauffenberg, Thormaehlen, Anton, Blumenthal, and others wished to return his body to Germany for burial, Boehringer, as the poet's heir, overruled them by quoting George's own words: "A man should be buried where he dies."{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=73}}{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=41}} In response, the {{lang|de|George-Kreis}} decided to inter him locally. [[Claus von Stauffenberg]] organized the wake in accordance with the customs of the Italian-speaking [[Canton of Ticino]] and the {{lang|de|George-Kreis}} kept constant vigil at the Minusio cemetery chapel until the morning of 6 December 1933.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=73}}

On 5 December the German [[Consulate]] at [[Lugano]] contacted the city officials of Minusio and asked for the date and time of the funeral. The {{lang|de|George-Kreis}} replied that the funeral would be at 3pm on 6 December but added that mourners from outside the Circle were not wanted. Just in case, the funeral was then secretly rescheduled for 8:15 on the morning of 6 December. Boehringer, however, disapproved of the deception and quietly informed Baron [[Ernst von Weizsäcker]], the German Minister at [[Bern]], that he could deliver a wreath to the grave on the day after the funeral.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|p=73}}

Twenty-five members of the {{lang|de|George-Kreis}}, including Jewish members [[Ernst Morwitz]] and [[Karl Wolfskehl]], attended the funeral. The laurel wreath later delivered by the [[Federal Foreign Office|German Foreign Office]] bore a [[swastika]] printed on a white ribbon. This subsequently caused a running battle within the Circle between those, like Clotilde Schlayer, who repeatedly chose to remove it and other members who kept replacing it with new swastika ribbons. As the mourners left the railroad station at [[Locarno]] following the ceremony, some of the younger members of the {{lang|de|George-Kreis}} were seen to give the [[Nazi salute]].{{sfn|Hoffmann|2008|pp=73–74}}

According to the Metzgers, "When Stefan George died in 1933, there was a grim dissonance between the eulogies from inside and outside Germany, the former claiming George as the prophet of the [[Third Reich]], which had taken power that year, the latter often interpreting his silence as expressing his utter contempt for the new regime."{{sfn|Metzger|Metzger|1972|p=41}}

==Literary achievements==
From the inception of the Circle, George and his followers represented a literary and cultural revolt against the [[literary realism]] trend in [[German literature]] during the last decades of the [[German Empire]].

George was also a highly important intermediary between [[German Romanticism]] and [[literary realism]] of the 19th century and the 20th-century [[expressionism|Expressionist]] and [[Modernist poetry]] of [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[August Stramm]], [[Reinhard Sorge]], and [[Berthold Brecht]]. Even though George was, like his fellow [[war poet]]s [[Siegfried Sassoon]], [[Hedd Wyn]], and [[Wilfred Owen]], a very harsh critic of his own era, he was also very much a man of his own time.{{sfn|Hoffmann|2003}}

George's poetry is characterized by an [[German nobility|aristocratic]] [[ethos]]; his verse is [[metre (poetry)|formal]] in style, [[lyric poetry|lyrical]] in tone, and often arcane in language, being influenced by [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[classical antiquity|classical]] forms. By both emulating and building upon the [[literary language]] of the [[German Romanticism|German Romantics]] and [[Biedermeier]] poets, "Stefan George's poetry", according to Peter Hoffmann, "helped to form modern literary German."{{sfn|Hoffmann|2003}} He also experimented with various poetic metres, [[punctuation]], obscure [[allusions]] and [[typography]].

Believing that the purpose of poetry was to create an alternative to reality {{mdashb}} he was a strong advocate of [[art for art's sake]] {{mdashb}} George's beliefs about poetry were drawn from the [[French poetry|French]] [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist]] poets and he considered himself to be both the student and the successor of [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] and [[Paul Verlaine]].

Stefan George's "evident homosexuality" is represented by works such as ''Algabal'' and the love poetry he devoted to a gifted adolescent of his acquaintance named [[Maximilian Kronberger]], whom he called "Maximin", and whom he believed to be a manifestation of the divine.{{sfn|Norton|2002|p=354}}{{sfn|Palmer|2002}} The relevance of George's sexuality to his poetic work has been discussed by contemporary critics, such as Thomas Karlauf and Marita Keilson-Lauritz.{{sfn|Keilson-Lauritz|2005}}

''Algabal'' is one of George's best remembered collections of poetry, if also one of his strangest; the title is a reference to the effete Roman emperor [[Elagabalus]]. George was also an important [[translation|translator]]; he translated [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] and [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]] into [[German language|German]].

George was awarded the inaugural [[Goethe Prize]] in 1927.{{sfn|Göpfert|2017}}

==={{lang|de|Das neue Reich}}===
George's last complete book of poems, {{lang|de|Das neue Reich}} ({{gloss|"The New Realm"}}), was published in 1928. It was banned in [[Occupied Germany]] after [[World War II]], as the title sounded tainted by [[Nazism]]. But George had dedicated the work, which includes the lyric "{{lang|de|Geheimes Deutschland|italic=no}}" ({{gloss|"Secret Germany"}}) written in 1922, to [[Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg]], who, with his brother [[Claus von Stauffenberg|Claus]], took a leading role in the [[20 July plot]] to assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]] and overthrow the [[Nazi Party]].{{sfn|Ilany|2019}} Both brothers, who were executed after the plot failed, had considered themselves to be acting on the teachings of George by trying to kill Hitler and put an end to [[Nazism]].{{sfn|Ammon|2007}} The book describes a new form of society ruled by a hierarchical spiritual aristocracy. George rejected all attempts to use it for mundane political purposes, including those of Nazism.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

==Influence==
In a view inspired by the German Romantic poets and the French Symbolist, George and his followers saw him as the [[monarch]] of a separate government of Germany, composed of his intellectual and artistic disciples, bonded by their faithfulness to "The Master" and to a common vision.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} In his [[Inside the Third Reich|memoirs]], [[Albert Speer]] claims to have met George during the early 1920s and that his elder brother, Hermann, was an acquaintance of his: George "radiated dignity and pride and a kind of priestliness ... there was something magnetic about him."{{sfn|Speer|1970}}{{Unreliable source?|reason=Albert Speer's memoirs are not a reliable source for anything beyond noting his claims.|failed=y|date=September 2024}}

George's poetry emphasized self-sacrifice, heroism, and power, which won him the approval of the National Socialists. Though many Nazis claimed George as an influence, George remained aloof from such associations. Soon after the Nazi seizure of power, George left Germany for [[Switzerland]] where he died the same year.{{sfn|Ilany|2019}}

Some of the members of the [[20 July plot]] against Hitler were drawn from among his devotees, notably the [[Stauffenberg]] brothers who were introduced to George by the poet and classical scholar [[Albrecht von Blumenthal]].{{sfn|Ilany|2019}} Although some members of the George circle were avowedly anti-semitic (for example, Klages), the Circle also included Jewish authors such as Gundolf, the historian [[Ernst Kantorowicz]], the Zionist [[Karl Wolfskehl]], and Erich Berger. George was fond of his Jewish disciples, but he expressed reservations about their ever becoming a majority in the group.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

George's influence on [[Ernst Kantorowicz]] was decisive in the latter's [[Frederick the Second|controversial biography]] of [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]], which was published in 1927. The book's account of Frederick II and his "dynamic personality and ability to shape the [[Holy Roman Empire|Empire]] according to a higher vision seemed to sum up the aspirations of the George Circle." George is even reported to have "carefully corrected" the manuscript and saw that it was published.{{sfn|Monod|2005}}

One of George's most well known collaborators was [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal]], a leading literary modernist in the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]]. Hofmannsthal, however, refused membership in the group. Later in life, Hofmannsthal wrote that no one had influenced him more than George. Those closest to the "Master," as George had his disciples call him, included several members of the [[20 July plot]] to assassinate Hitler, among them [[Claus von Stauffenberg]] himself. Stauffenberg frequently quoted George's poem "{{lang|de|Der Widerchrist|italic=no}}" ({{gloss|"The Anti-Christ"}}) to his fellow members of the 20 July plot.{{sfn|Fest|1996|p=216}}

===In music and film===
Stefan George's poetry was a major influence upon the [[20th-century classical music]] composed by the [[Second Viennese School]], particularly during their [[Expressionist music|Expressionist period]].

Radically innovative [[Austrian Jew]]ish composer [[Arnold Schoenberg]] set George's poetry to music in the "{{lang|de|Ich darf nicht dankend|italic=no}}", Op. 14/1 (1907), [[String quartets (Schoenberg)#String Quartet No. 2|String Quartet No. 2]], Op. 10 (1908), and in ''[[The Book of the Hanging Gardens]]'', Op. 15 (1909). Arnold Schoenberg's student [[Anton Webern]] also set George's poetry to music in his early choral work {{lang|de|Entflieht auf leichten Kähnen}}, Op. 2. Webern did the same in two other sets of songs, Op. 3 and 4 of 1909, and in several posthumously published vocal compositions from the same period.

[[Rainer Werner Fassbinder]]'s 1976 [[comedy film]] ''[[Satan's Brew]]'' pokes fun at both Stefan George and the {{lang|de|[[George-Kreis]]}}.

==Bibliography==
* 1890: {{lang|de|Hymnen}} ({{gloss|Odes}}), 18 poems written reflecting Symbolism; dedicated to Carl August Klein; limited, private edition{{sfn|George|1974}}{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1891: {{lang|de|Pilgerfahrten}} ({{gloss|Pilgrimages}}); limited, private edition{{sfn|George|1943|pp=246–247}}{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1892: ''Algabal'', illustrated by [[Melchior Lechter]]; limited, private edition{{sfn|George|1943|pp=246–247}}{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1895: {{lang|de|Die Bücher der Hirten- und Preisgedichte, der Sagen und Sänge, und der hängenden Gärten}} ({{gloss|The Books of Eclogues and Eulogies, of Legends and Lays, and of the Hanging Gardens}}){{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1897: {{lang|de|Das Jahr der Seele}} ({{gloss|The Year of the Soul}}){{sfn|George|1943|pp=246–247}}{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1899: {{lang|de|Teppich des Lebens}} ({{gloss|The Tapestry of Life}}){{sfn|George|1943|pp=246–247}}{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1900: {{lang|de|Hymnen, Pilgerfahrten, and Algabal}}, a one-volume edition published in Berlin by Georg Bondi which first made George's work available to the public at large{{sfn|George|1943|pp=246–247}}{{sfn|George|1974}}
* 1901: {{lang|de|Die Fibel}} ({{gloss|Primer}}), poems written from 1886 to 1889{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1903: {{lang|de|Tage und Taten}} ({{gloss|Days and Works}}; cf. [[Works and Days|Hesiod's ''Works and Days'']]){{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1907: {{lang|de|Der siebente Ring}} ({{gloss|The Seventh Ring}}){{sfn|George|1943|pp=248–249}}{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1913: {{lang|de|Der Stern des Bundes}} ({{gloss|The Star of the Covenant}}){{sfn|George|1943|pp=250–251}}{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1917: {{lang|de|Der Krieg}} ({{gloss|The War}}){{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}
* 1928: {{lang|de|Das neue Reich}} ({{gloss|The Kingdom Come}}){{sfn|George|1943|pp=250–251}}{{sfn|Rieckmann|2005|p=xv}}

==References==
===Notes===
{{reflist}}

===Works cited===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last=Ammon |first=Herbert |year=2007 |title=Vom Geist Georges zur Tat Stauffenbergs – Manfred Riedels Rettung des Reiches |url=https://www.iablis.de/iablis_t/2007/ammonrez07.html |journal=Iablis |language=de |volume=6 |issn=1610-6253 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928021121/https://www.iablis.de/iablis_t/2007/ammonrez07.html |archive-date=2007-09-28}}
* {{cite book |last=Boehringer |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Boehringer |year=1967 |orig-date=Originally published in 1951 |title=Mein Bild von Stefan George |language=de |edition=2nd |location=Munich & Düsseldorf |publisher=Helmut Küpper vormals Georg Bondi |oclc=1194691}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=<!--No author name given.--> |editor1-last=Bourgoin |editor1-first=Suzanne M. |editor2-last=Byers |editor2-first=Paula K. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Biography |title=Stefan George |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/german-literature-biographies/stefan-george |edition=2nd |year=1998 |orig-date=Updated 29 May 2018 |publisher=Gale |series= |volume=6: Ford – Grilliparzer |location=Detroit |id= |isbn=978-0-7876-2546-7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510214840/https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/german-literature-biographies/stefan-george#expand |archive-date=2024-05-10 |url-status=live |via=[[Encyclopedia.com]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Fest |first=Joachim |author-link=Joachim Fest |translator-last=Little |translator-first=Bruce |year=1996 |orig-date=Originally published in German in 1994 |title=Plotting Hitler's Death: The Story of the German Resistance |title-link=Plotting Hitler's Death |location=New York |publisher=Metropolitan Books |isbn=978-0-8050-4213-9}}
* {{cite book |last=George |first=Stefan |translator-last1=Valhope |translator-first1=Carol North |translator-last2=Morwitz |translator-first2=Ernst |translator-link2=Ernst Morwitz |year=1943 |title=Poems |url=https://archive.org/details/stefangeorgepoem0000stef/ |url-access=registration |language=en, de |location=New York |publisher=Pantheon Books |oclc=1457635 |access-date=2024-09-20 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}
* {{cite book |last=George |first=Stefan |author-mask=3 |translator-last1=Marx |translator-first1=Olga |translator-last2=Morwitz |translator-first2=Ernst |year=1974 |orig-date=First edition published in 1949 |title=The Works of Stefan George |series=University of North Carolina Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures |edition=2nd rev. & enl. |location=Chapel Hill |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |doi=10.1353/book.75740 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-0-8078-8078-4}}
* {{cite news |last=Göpfert |first=Claus-Jürgen |date=30 August 2017 |title=Goethe-Preis nicht demontieren |url=http://www.fr.de/frankfurt/goethe-preis-in-frankfurt-goethe-preis-nicht-demontieren-a-1341333 |url-status=dead |work=[[Frankfurter Rundschau]] |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830101614/http://www.fr.de/frankfurt/goethe-preis-in-frankfurt-goethe-preis-nicht-demontieren-a-1341333#expand |archive-date=2017-08-30}}
* {{cite web |last=Hoffmann |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Hoffmann (historian) |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/43675/hoffmann-norton-secret-germany-stefan-george-and-his-circle |title=Review of Norton, Robert, ''Secret Germany: Stefan George and His Circle'' |date=May 2003 |department=H-German |website=<!--Website name same as publisher.--> |series= |publisher=H-Net |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314222244/https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/43675/hoffmann-norton-secret-germany-stefan-george-and-his-circle |archive-date=2024-03-14}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoffmann |first=Peter |author-mask=3 |year=2008 |orig-date=Originally published in German in 1992 |title=Stauffenberg: A Family History, 1905–1944 |type=ebook |edition=3rd |location=Montreal |publisher=McGill–Queen's University Press |doi=10.1515/9780773575295 |isbn=978-0-7735-7529-5 |jstor=j.cttq48wn}}
* {{cite web |last=Ilany |first=Ofri |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2019-03-21/ty-article/.premium/the-secret-order-that-inspired-the-plot-on-hitlers-life/0000017f-e945-df2c-a1ff-ff55a08e0000 |url-access=subscription |title=The Secret Society That Inspired a Nazi Officer's Attempt to Kill Hitler |date=21 March 2019 |website=Haaretz |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601112837/https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2019-03-21/ty-article/.premium/the-secret-order-that-inspired-the-plot-on-hitlers-life/0000017f-e945-df2c-a1ff-ff55a08e0000 |archive-date=2022-06-01}}
* {{cite book |last=Karlauf |first=Thomas |year=2007 |title=Stefan George. Die Entdeckung des Charisma |url=https://archive.org/details/stefangeorgediee0000karl |url-access=registration |language=de |location=Munich |publisher=Karl Blessing Verlag |isbn=978-3-89667-151-6 |access-date=2024-09-20 |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book |last=Keilson-Lauritz |first=Marita |editor-last=Rieckmann |editor-first=Jens |year=2005 |chapter=Stefan George's Concept of Love and the Gay Emancipation Movement |title=A Companion to the Works of Stefan George |location=Rochester |publisher=Camden House |pages=207–229 |isbn=978-1-57113-214-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Kramarz |first=Joachim |translator-last=Barry |translator-first=R. H. |year=1967 |orig-date=Originally published in German in 1965 |title=Stauffenberg: The Life and Death of an Officer, November 15th 1907 – July 20th 1944 |url=https://archive.org/details/stauffenberglife0000joac/ |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=Andre Deutsch |oclc=1948935 |access-date=2024-09-20 |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book |last1=Metzger |first1=Michael M. |last2=Metzger |first2=Erika A. |year=1972 |title=Stefan George |url=https://archive.org/details/stefangeorge0000metz/ |url-access=registration |series=Twayne's World Authors Series |location=New York |publisher=Twayne Publishers |oclc=251789 |access-date=2024-09-20 |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{cite journal |last=Monod |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Monod |date=January 2005 |title=Reading the Two Bodies of Ernst Kantorowicz |journal=Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=105–123 |doi=10.1093/leobaeck/50.1.105}}
* {{cite book |last=Norton |first=Robert E. |author-link=Robert E. Norton |year=2002 |title=Secret Germany: Stefan George and His Circle |location=Ithaca & London |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-3354-2}}
* {{cite web |last=Palmer |first=Craig B. |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/george_s.html |title=George, Stefan (1868-1933) |year=2002 |orig-date=Updated 18 December 2006 |editor-last=Summers |editor-first=Claude J. |editor-link=Claude J. Summers |website=[[glbtq.com]] |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150619203347/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/george_s.html |archive-date=2015-06-19}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Rieckmann |editor-first=Jens |year=2005 |title=A Companion to the Works of Stefan George |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_1571132147/ |url-access=registration |location=Rochester |publisher=Camden House |isbn=978-1-57113-214-7 |access-date=2024-09-20 |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book |last=Speer |first=Albert |author-link=Albert Speer |translator-last1=Winston |translator-first1=Richard |translator-link1=Richard Winston |translator-last2=Winston |translator-first2=Clara |translator-link2=Clara Winston |year=1970 |orig-date=Originally published in German in 1969 |title=Inside the Third Reich |title-link=Inside the Third Reich |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-02-612820-9}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Breuer |first=Stefan |author-link=Stefan Breuer |year=1995 |title=Ästhetischer Fundamentalismus. Stefan George und der deutsche Antimodernismus |language=de |location=Darmstadt |publisher=Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft |isbn=978-3-534-12676-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Capetanakis |first=Demetrios |author-link=Demetrios Capetanakis |year=1949 |orig-date=Originally published in London in 1947 |chapter=Stefan George |title=The Shores of Darkness: Poems and Essays |url=https://archive.org/details/shoresofdarkness00cape/ |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Devin-Adair |pages=72–89 |oclc=2560408 |access-date=2024-09-20 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Frank |editor-first1=Lore |editor-last2=Ribbeck |editor-first2=Sabine |year=2018 |orig-date=Originally published in 2000 |title=Stefan George-Bibliographie 1976–1997. Mit Nachträgen bis 1976. Auf der Grundlage der Bestände des Stefan George-Archivs in der Württembergischen Landesbibliothek |type=ebook |language=de |location=Stuttgart/Tübingen |publisher=Stefan George-Stiftung/Max Niemeyer Verlag |doi=10.1515/9783110925821 |isbn=978-3-11-092582-1}}
* {{cite journal |last=Goldsmith |first=Ulrich K. |author-link=Ulrich K. Goldsmith |date=March 1951 |title=Stefan George and the Theatre |journal=PMLA |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=85–95 |doi=10.2307/459591 |jstor=459591}}
* {{cite book |last=Goldsmith |first=Ulrich K. |author-mask=3 |year=1959 |title=Stefan George: A Study of His Early Work |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004503314 |series=University of Colorado Studies Series in Language and Literature |location=Boulder |publisher=University of Colorado Press |oclc=1427972056 |access-date=2024-09-20 |via=[[HathiTrust]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Goldsmith |first=Ulrich K. |author-mask=3 |year=1970 |title=Stefan George |series=Columbia Essays on Modern Writers |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |oclc=729708777}}
* {{cite book |last=Goldsmith |first=Ulrich K. |author-mask=3 |editor-last1=Grunwald |editor-first1=Stefan |editor-last2=Beatie |editor-first2=Bruce A. |year=1974 |chapter=Shakespeare and Stefan George: The Sonnets |title=Theorie und Kritik. Zur vergleichenden und neueren deutschen Literatur. Festschrift für Gerhard Loose zum 65. Geburtstag |location=Bern & Munich |publisher=Francke Verlag |pages=67–86 |oclc=1450119}}
* {{cite book |last=Kluncker |first=Karlhans |year=1985 |title="Das geheime Deutschland". Über Stefan George und seinen Kreis |series=Abhandlungen zur Kunst-, Musik- und Literaturwissenschaft |language=de |location=Bonn |publisher=Bouvier |isbn=978-3-416-01858-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Lacchin |first=Giancarlo |year=2006 |title=Stefan George e l'antichità. Lineamenti di una filosofia dell'arte |series=Intersezioni |language=it |location=Lugano |publisher=University Words |isbn=978-88-6067-007-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Lerner |first=Robert E. |author-link=Robert E. Lerner |year=2017 |title=Ernst Kantorowicz: A Life |type=ebook |location=Princeton & Oxford |publisher=Princeton University Press |doi=10.1515/9781400882922 |isbn=978-1-4008-8292-2}}
* {{cite journal |last=Norton |first=Robert E. |author-link=Robert E. Norton |year=2010 |title=Wozu Stefan George? |journal=WestEnd. Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung |language=de |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=133–141 |issn=2942-3546}}
* {{cite news |last=Reuter |first=Gabriele |date=21 January 1934 |title=The German Poet Stefan George |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/01/21/archives/the-german-poet-stefan-george.html |work=The New York Times |page=B8 |access-date=2024-09-20 |url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite book |last=Schefold |first=Bertram |author-link=Bertram Schefold |editor-last=Hagemann |editor-first=Harald |year=2011 |chapter=Politische Ökonomie als „Geisteswissenschaft“. Edgar Salin und andere Ökonomen um Stefan George |title=Wissen / The Knowledge Economy. Studien zur Entwicklung der ökonomischen Theorie XXVI |series=Schriften des Vereins für Socialpolitik |volume=115/XXVI |language=de |location=Berlin |publisher=Duncker & Humblot |pages=149–210 |doi=10.3790/978-3-428-53582-8 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-3-428-53582-8 |jstor=j.ctv1q69qs3 |jstor-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last=Schmitz |first=Victor A. |year=1978 |title=Stefan George und Rainer Maria Rilke. Gestaltung und Verinnerlichung |language=de |location=Bern |publisher=Verlag Alexander Wild |isbn=978-3-7284-0004-8}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Stefan George |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author|id=9980}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/005990}}
* [http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/George,+Stefan George, Stefan] via [[Zeno.org]] {{In lang|de}}
* [http://www.alb-neckar-schwarzwald.de/s_george_poems.html Selected poems in German and English translation] republished from ''Poems'' (Pantheon, 1943)
* [https://www.edwardviesel.eu/0058.html Selected Poems by Stefan George], selected and translated by Edward Viesel
* [https://archives.nypl.org/mss/18586 Stefan George letters to Ernst Morwitz finding aid], Manuscripts and Archives Division, [[New York Public Library]]

{{Conservative Revolution}}
{{German literature}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Stefan}}
[[Category:1868 births]]
[[Category:1933 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Bingen am Rhein]]
[[Category:People from Rhenish Hesse]]
[[Category:Conservative Revolutionary movement]]
[[Category:German expatriates in Switzerland]]
[[Category:German-language poets]]
[[Category:German poets]]
[[Category:German translators]]
[[Category:German World War I poets]]
[[Category:Writers from Rhineland-Palatinate]]
[[Category:English–German translators]]
[[Category:French–German translators]]
[[Category:Italian–German translators]]
[[Category:Translators of William Shakespeare]]
[[Category:Translators of Dante Alighieri]]
[[Category:German male poets]]
[[Category:German male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century German dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:German nationalists]]
[[Category:Symbolist poets]]
[[Category:German LGBTQ poets]]
[[Category:German gay writers]]