Über den Expressionismus in der Literatur und die neue Dichtung

Written in the turbulent years after the Great War, this essay captures the urgency of a generation that felt both haunted by the past and desperate for renewal. The author addresses a Scandinavian audience, urging young writers to discard the stale conventions of naturalism and to let a new, instinctive voice rise from the ruins of old forms. It is both a personal confession and a public manifesto, insisting that true youth is less a stage of life than a rallying cry for a spiritual revolution.

The prose weaves together fragments of poetry, allusions to Hölderlin and Goethe, and vivid images of fires, barricades, and restless hearts. Through dense, lyrical language, it articulates how early Expressionists sought to fuse emotion with a modern sensibility, shaking literature from within while maintaining an outward quiet. Listeners will taste the raw enthusiasm of a movement that aimed to rewrite the very language of art.