Max Herrmann-Neisse

Max Herrmann-Neisse was born in Nysa on May 23, 1886. German writer, poet and journalist. He was the son of the innkeeper. He studied German philology in Munich and Wrocław. In 1906 he published his debut volume of poems "Ein kleines Leben". From 1909 he worked in the Nysa newspaper "Neisser Tageblatt" as a theater critic. From 1911, he published poems in the periodicals Die Aktion and Pan, which quickly made him famous. In 1913 his series "Porträte eines Provinztheaters" was published. As a result of the scandal caused by him, he lost his job at the newspaper. In 1914, he began working on the novel Cajetan Schaltermann, which was not published until 1920 due to difficulties with censorship. The writer was friends with many well-known artists, among whom should be mentioned in the first period of the work of Franz Jung, then René Schickele, Paul Zech, and in the last period of Stefan Zweig's life. He also became friends with Georg Grosz. In 1933, the writer left Germany and emigrated. After a short stay in Zurich, where in 1936 he published the only volume of poems published in exile, "Um uns die Fremde", he went to London, where he spent the last years of his life. He remained isolated on the islands and was refused British citizenship after he was stripped of his German citizenship in 1938. The writer died in 1941, most likely due to a heart attack. His grave is in Marylebone Cemetery in London. Like many writers of that time, Max Herrmann-Neiße was quickly forgotten. His works were only gradually rediscovered from the 1980s and re-published.