RUBINER, LUDWIG

RUBINER, LUDWIG (1881–1920), German poet and essayist. Rubiner, a native of Berlin, was a social revolutionary who campaigned passionately for peace and social justice. A member of no political party, he expounded his ideology in a series of essays collected in the volume Der Mensch in der Mitte (1917). In his poetry, as in his prose, he was an expressionist.

His own verse included Die indischen Opale (1911) and Das himmlische Licht (1916). He also edited an anthology, Kameraden der Menschheit, Dichtungen zur Weltrevolution (1919). This was a collection of manifestos "for the fight against the old world and for the advancement toward a true humanity," and in it he called on the poets to side with the rebellious masses. For a short time, Rubiner edited the expressionist journal Zeit-Echo (1918). He edited a selection of Tolstoy's diaries, Tagebuch 1895–1899 (1918), and also translated some of the works of Voltaire, Die Romane und Erzaehlungen, 2 vols. (1919).

add. bibliography:

K. Petersen, Ludwig Rubiner. Eine Einf. m. Textausw. u. Bibliogr. 1980; B. Choluj, "Vom Abstrakten zum konkreten Enthusiasmus. Dargestellt an Ludwig Rubiner, Erich Muehsam und Leonhard Frank," in: K. Sauerland (ed.), Melancholie und Enthusiasmus, (1988), 181–94; V. Belentschikow, "Rußlands 'Neuer Mensch' in der Deutung der deutschen Expressionisten. Der Kreis um Pfemfert und Rubiner," in: Die Welt der Slaven, 38:2 (1993), 201–213; A. Trevisani, "Lo spazio anelato. Corpo e parola nel 'Tänzer Nijinski' di Ludwig Rubiner," in: Studi germanici, 37:1 (1999), 153–162.

[Rudolf Kayser]