ABSTRACT
Acknowledged to be one of the most talented among the early expressionist poets, Georg Heym was born in Hirschberg, Silesia; his father was a lawyer. Heym embarked on studies for a legal career in Würzburg, but soon took up writing; a longing for violence and upheaval characterized his work from its beginnings. A diary entry of 6 July 1910 expresses a longing for war (‘Oder sei es auch nur, daß man einen Krieg begänne, er kann ungerecht sein. Dieser Frieden ist so faul ölig und schmierig…’). Attempts at historical drama, modelled on Grabbe, were unsuccessful; important was the meeting in Berlin with Kurt Hiller and the association with the Neuer Club. Poems by Heym appeared in Der Demokrat and Die Aktion (1910-11); Ernst Rowohlt requested more and published Heym’s first collection, Der ewige Tag, in 1911. Poems such as ‘Der Gott der Stadt’ and ‘Die Dämonen der Städte’ portray the grotesque horror of cities (Berlin) and contain sombre presentiments of doom; the tension between conventional structure (quatrain) and apocalyptic vision is singularly impressive. Heym read his poems in the Neuer Club in a staccato, withdrawn manner; Kurt Hiller wrote of him thus (in Pan, 1911): ‘Georg Heym ist der wuchtigste, riesenhafteste; der dämonischste, zyklopischste; ein Platzendes, Hinhauer unter den Dichtern dieser Tage…’. On 16 January 1912 Heym was drowned in the Havel Lake near Berlin; it is claimed that he attempted to save his friend Ernst Balcke from suicide. The second collection of poems, Umbra Vitae, appeared posthumously later that year, despite the objections of Heym’s father. It includes the famous poem ‘Der Krieg’, which is his best known (‘Aufgestanden ist er, welcher lange schlief…’). A sense of dread is combined in this poem with feelings of awe; it also exemplifies that expressionist tendency to see through the surface of things to behold a mythical, archetypal dimension. Other poems (‘Deine Wimpern, die langen…’) are tender love lyrics inspired by Hildegard Krohn. A collection of Novellen and sketches, Der Dieb, appeared in 1913; most famous is ‘Die Sektion’, where a clinical description of an autopsy is transfigured by poetry and vision. E.L.Kirchner provided forty-seven lithographs for an edition of Umbra Vitae in 1924. The Dichtungen und Schriften (vols 1-3) appeared from 1960 to 1964; vol. 6 (Dokumente zu Leben und Werk) appeared in 1968, Gedichte 1910-1912 in 1990. The Historisch-kritische Ausgabe (two vols) was published in 1993.
