Heymann, Walther
HEYMANN, WALTHER
HEYMANN, WALTHER (1882–1915), German poet, pioneer of German expressionism. He read law in Koenigsberg, Freiburg, Berlin and Munich; after the first civil-service examination he was a teacher on probation in Insterburg and Koenigsberg. Heymann, who was born in Koenigsberg, published his first volume of lyrics, Der Springbrunnen, in 1907, but achieved his more original style with Nehrungsbilder (1909), in which he idealized the landscape of his native East Prussia. A contributor to the expressionist publication Sturm, Heymann combined a love of nature with a critical intellectual approach. In all his writing there is an earnest search for artistic form and for solutions to contemporary and eternal problems. He was killed on the Western front early in World War I, and most of his work was published posthumously. It included Kriegsgedichte und Feldpostbriefe (1915); Das Tempelwunder: Erzaehlungen (1916), a collection of short stories; and two volumes of lyrics, Die Tanne (1917) and Von Fahrt und Flug (1919). An edition of his Gedichte, Prosa, Essays, Briefe (ed. by L.M. Fiedler) appeared in 1998.
bibliography:
H. Schumann, Walther Heymann (Ger., 1915). add. bibliography: P. Raabe, Die Autoren und Buecher des literarischen Expressionismus (19922).
[Kurt Pinthus /
Konrad Feilchenfeldt (2nd ed.)]