Paul Kraft

Born in Magdeburg on April 28, 1896, he became part of the German Expressionist movement and began writing poetry while still very young. He later studied modern languages in Berlin, where he entered literary circles and was introduced to the publisher Kurt Wolff.

His life was heavily shaped by World War I. He was drafted in 1916, became ill after time in French captivity, and suffered from tuberculosis. Those experiences, together with the emotional and spiritual intensity of Expressionism, helped give his work its dark, searching tone.

He died in Berlin on March 17, 1922. Though his life was brief, he is remembered as a poet of concentrated feeling whose work belongs to the restless energy of early 20th-century German literature.