author
Rudolf Leonhard
1889–1953
A German poet, essayist, and playwright shaped by war, exile, and political struggle, he moved through the worlds of Expressionism, pacifism, and resistance. His life and writing carry the tension of a turbulent Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.
2 Audiobooks
Das Werk Heinrich Manns
by Rudolf Leonhard
Polnische Gedichte
by Rudolf Leonhard
About the author
Born on October 27, 1889, in Lissa in the German Empire (now Leszno, Poland), Rudolf Leonhard became a German writer whose work ranged across poetry, essays, drama, prose, and translation. He studied law and philology, worked in Berlin, and was associated with the Expressionist literary scene before building a career as a freelance author.
His politics were as intense as his writing life. Leonhard was active on the left, strongly anti-war, and later lived in Paris after leaving Germany. During the Nazi period he spent years in exile, and accounts of his life note both his pacifist convictions and his involvement in the French Resistance during the occupation.
Leonhard died in East Berlin on December 19, 1953. He is remembered not only as a poet and essayist, but as a writer whose life was deeply marked by the upheavals of his time.