author
Karl Otten
1889–1963
A German Expressionist writer and broadcaster, he lived through war, exile, and political upheaval, and brought that intensity into his fiction and essays. His life moved from early anti-militarist activism to decades of writing shaped by the conflicts of the 20th century.
2 Audiobooks
Der Sprung aus dem Fenster
by Karl Otten
Der Fall Strauß
by Karl Otten
About the author
Born on July 29, 1889, in Oberkrüchten, Karl Otten became part of the German Expressionist literary world and worked as a writer, journalist, editor, and broadcaster. During the First World War he was active as an anti-militarist, and his political commitments remained closely tied to his literary life.
After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, he went into exile. Accounts of his career note periods in Spain and later in Switzerland, and that long experience of displacement helps explain the strong political edge often associated with his work. He died on March 20, 1963, in the Swiss town of Minusio or nearby Muralto, depending on the source.
Otten is remembered as a restless, engaged voice rather than a purely academic figure: an author whose work grew out of lived conviction, public struggle, and the upheavals of modern Europe. For listeners interested in Expressionism, exile literature, or writers shaped by history at close range, his story adds real depth to the books he left behind.