René Schickele

Born in Obernai, Alsace, on August 4, 1883, René Schickele grew up between French and German worlds—an experience that became the center of his writing. He studied in Strasbourg, Munich, Paris, and Berlin, and went on to build a career as a writer, essayist, editor, and translator.

Schickele is best known for exploring the cultural and political strains of Alsace and the wider conflict between France and Germany. He wrote poetry, fiction, and journalism, and his novel trilogy Das Erbe am Rhein is often singled out as his major work. During the First World War he edited the pacifist journal Die weißen Blätter, and throughout his career he argued for reconciliation rather than nationalism.

After the rise of Nazism, he left Germany and settled in France. He died in Vence on January 31, 1940. Today he is remembered as a distinctly Alsatian voice: a writer who belonged to more than one language and nation, and who used literature to defend the idea that Europe could be more than a battlefield.