author
Klabund
1890–1928
A restless, inventive voice of early 20th-century German literature, he wrote poetry, novels, and plays with striking speed and range. His work moved between satire, lyric intensity, and adaptations from Asian literature, all shaped by a short life marked by illness and urgency.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born Alfred Henschke in 1890, this German writer became known by the pen name Klabund. He studied at university but turned to literature instead, building a career as a poet, novelist, dramatist, and journalist during the years around World War I and the Weimar era.
He was remarkably versatile. Reference works describe him as an Expressionist writer, and he became especially known for his poems, novels, plays, and for adapting and translating works from Asian literatures. His writing could be playful, sharp, and emotionally direct, which helped make him a distinctive figure in modern German literature.
Klabund lived much of his life under the shadow of tuberculosis, an illness he developed as a teenager and never escaped. That long struggle gave his work an added sense of intensity and speed. He died in 1928 in Davos, Switzerland, at just 37, but left behind a substantial body of work that kept his name alive well beyond his lifetime.