Hugo Ball

Born in Pirmasens, Germany, in 1886, he studied sociology and philosophy before moving into theater, journalism, and literary life. He worked with the stage director Max Reinhardt and became known as a writer, poet, dramatist, and performer with a sharp eye for the moral and political crises of his time.

He is best remembered as a founder of Dada in Zürich during the First World War. Alongside Emmy Hennings, he helped launch Cabaret Voltaire in 1916, where performance, poetry, and deliberate absurdity became a protest against war, convention, and empty cultural seriousness. His sound poem Karawane and his Dada writings remain central to the story of the movement.

Ball did not stay in Dada for long, but his later work shows another side of him: reflective, religious, and deeply interested in ideas. He also wrote an early book on Hermann Hesse, published in 1927, the year he died in Sant'Abbondio, Switzerland.