Paul Kraft

Born in Magdeburg on April 28, 1896, Paul Kraft was a German poet associated with Expressionism. He attended school in Magdeburg and, after finishing the Abitur in 1914, moved with his mother to Berlin. There he studied German philology, Romance studies, and philosophy at the Friedrich Wilhelm University.

Kraft began writing poetry by 1913 and formed an especially close friendship with his cousin Werner Kraft, who later remembered their bond vividly. His early reviews and poems appeared in Die Aktion, the influential magazine edited by Franz Pfemfert, and some of his work was also included in major Expressionist anthologies. Literary critic Franz Blei helped bring his poems into print in the respected series Der jüngste Tag.

In 1916 he was drafted for military service despite illness, sent to the Western Front, and soon taken prisoner by the French; he returned only in 1920. A later attempt to place another poetry collection with S. Fischer Verlag did not succeed. He died in Berlin on March 17, 1922, leaving behind a brief but memorable literary legacy.