HILLER, KURT

HILLER, KURT (1885–1972), German socialist theoretician and author. Born in Berlin, Hiller worked as a freelance writer there. In 1926 he was elected president of the Gruppe revolutionaerer Pazifisten. In 1933 the Nazis imprisoned him in the Oranienburg concentration camp, but he escaped to Prague a year later. Hiller lived in London from 1938 until 1955, when he returned to Germany and settled in Hamburg. He had a dialectical mind and considerable literary talent. He attracted many disciples whom he organized into activist groups. The first of these was Der neue Club (1909), out of which came the Neopathetisches Cabarett and the Gnu, the latter sponsoring literary soirées for young poets and intellectuals. In 1912 Hiller published Der Kondor, the earliest anthology of expressionist poetry. Hiller was an early supporter of socialism and radical pacifism and in 1915 formed an activist movement in which he called for an international federation of the intellect and for politically conscious writers to change the world. He aimed at rule by the intellectuals and the "actualization of the intellect in the state" (Verwirklichung des Geistes im Staat, 1925). Hiller was the founder and president of the Neusozialistischer Bund of Hamburg (1956) and described his creed as "libertarian socialism." His ideas are reflected in the titles of his works, which range from Geist, werde Herr ("Spirit, Take Over," 1920) to Rote Ritter ("Red Knights," 1951). In 1969 Hiller published his autobiography Leben gegen die Zeit ("Life against the Time").

bibliography:

Deutsche Bibliothek, Frankfurt am Main, Exil-Literatur (exhibition catalog, 1965). add. bibliography: J. Habereder, Kurt Hiller und der literarische Aktivismus. Zur Geistesgeschichte des politischen Dichters in den fruehen zwanziger Jahren (1981); R. v. Bockel, Kurt Hiller und die Gruppe Revolutionaerer Pazifisten (1926–1933). Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Friedensbewegung und der Szene linker Intellektueller in der Weimarer Republik (1990); idem, Kurt Hiller Ein Leben in Hamburg nach den Jahren des Exils (1990); R. v. Bockel, H. Lützenkirchen, Kurt Hiller Erinnerungen und Materialien (1992); W. Beutin (ed.), Zu allererst antikonservativ. Kurt Hiller (1885–1972), (1998); Schriften der Kurt Hiller-Gesellschaft, 1 (2001).

[Kurt Pinthus]