Georg Trakl

Born in Salzburg in 1887, Georg Trakl trained as a pharmacist while writing poetry, and he published during a period when literary Expressionism was beginning to take shape. His poems are known for their musical language, striking colors, and recurring scenes of autumn, evening, and ruin.

Trakl's life was brief and troubled. During World War I he served as a military pharmacist, and the suffering he witnessed deepened the despair already present in his writing. He died in 1914 at just 27, but his reputation grew quickly after his death.

Today he is remembered as one of the essential German-language poets of the early 20th century. Readers often return to his work for its eerie atmosphere and emotional force, where beauty and devastation seem to exist in the same breath.