Alfred Wolfenstein

Born in Halle, Alfred Wolfenstein was a German writer, poet, dramatist, and translator associated with Expressionism. Reliable reference sources disagree on his birth year, listing either 1883 or 1888, but they agree that he died in Paris in 1945. He studied law and later lived as a freelance writer, becoming known especially for his poetry.

Wolfenstein is often linked with the intense, compressed style of early 20th-century German literature. His poem Städter is one of his most recognized works, exploring the closeness and loneliness of big-city life with striking images that still feel modern.

After the Nazis came to power, he left Germany and lived in exile, first in Prague and later in France. That experience of displacement shaped the later part of his life and legacy, and today he is remembered as an important Jewish German literary figure whose work reflects both artistic innovation and the pressures of a shattered era.