Ernst Toller

Born in 1893 in Samotschin, then in Prussia, Ernst Toller became one of the best-known German dramatists of the 1920s. He studied in France and Germany, volunteered for military service in World War I, and was deeply changed by the experience, moving toward pacifism and political activism.

Toller is especially remembered for his Expressionist plays, which combine emotional intensity with sharp social protest. He also played a brief but dramatic role in the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919, serving for a few days as its president. After its defeat, he was imprisoned for several years, and some of his important literary work was written during or shaped by that period.

In the 1930s, as the Nazi regime rose to power, Toller lived in exile and continued to write against authoritarianism and persecution. He died in New York in 1939, leaving behind a body of work that links literature, politics, and moral witness in a vivid and deeply personal way.