Hasenclever, Walter

Hasenclever, Walter

▪ German writer
born July 8, 1890, Aachen, Ger.
died June 21, 1940, Les Milles, France
 German Expressionist (Expressionism) poet and dramatist whose work is a protest against bourgeois materialism and the war-making state.

      After studying briefly at the Universities of Oxford and Lausanne, Hasenclever in 1909 went to the University of Leipzig, where he turned to literature, philosophy, and history. While serving in the German army during World War I, he feigned mental illness and was discharged. After the war he became interested in mysticism, occultism, and Buddhism. He worked from 1924 to 1928 in Paris as correspondent for a Berlin newspaper, and from 1929 to 1932 he was a scriptwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, living in Berlin but traveling frequently throughout Europe and North Africa. After fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, he eventually went to southern France, where in 1940, confined in an internment camp, he committed suicide.

      Hasenclever's first play, Der Sohn (1914; “The Son”), concerning a youth who becomes a political revolutionary and brings about his father's death, became the manifesto for the German post-World War I generation. It was followed by two antiwar plays, Der Retter (1915; “The Saviour”), about a poet who tries to stop the war and is executed by a firing squad, and Antigone (1917), a pacifist-slanted interpretation of Sophocles' play. In his best-known work, Die Menschen (1918; “Humanity”), Expressionist techniques are carried to an extreme form. The characters are symbolic types, speech is reduced to staccato monosyllables, and meaning is conveyed by pantomime and stylized overacting. Later, Hasenclever abandoned the Expressionist style and wrote conventional comedies. He also wrote two novels during his exile in France in the 1930s, both published posthumously.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • HASENCLEVER, WALTER — (1890–1940), German poet and playwright. Born in Aachen of a Jewish mother and a non Jewish father, Hasenclever served in the German army during World War I but his experiences made him a pacifist. After 1918 he worked for a time as a foreign… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Hasenclever, Walter — (1890 1940)    writer; among the Weimar era s most respected playwrights. Born to a well established Jewish family in Aachen, he went to Oxford at the wish of his father (a respected physician) to study law. Tiring of the law, he broke with his… …   Historical dictionary of Weimar Republik

  • Hasenclever, Walter — (1890 1940)    Playwright. Hasenclever began as a poet of Expressionism, though he is best known as a playwright of that style. His Der Sohn (The Son) premiered in 1916 at the Dresden Albert Theater and was afterward produced in several theaters …   Historical dictionary of German Theatre

  • Hasenclever, Walter —    см. Газенклевер, Вальтер …   Энциклопедический словарь экспрессионизма

  • Walter Hasenclever — (Aquisgrán, 8 de julio de 1890 Les Milles, cerca de Aix en Provence, 22 de junio de 1940) fue un escritor expresionista alemán. Estudió derecho en Oxford, terminando la carrera en Lausanne. Instalado en Leipzig, comenzó a interesarse por la… …   Wikipedia Español

  • HASENCLEVER (W.) — HASENCLEVER WALTER (1890 1940) Porte parole de l’expressionnisme, Hasenclever a écrit avec Le Fils (1916) la première pièce expressionniste jouée en Allemagne. Dans cette pièce déterminante, le père symbolise tout ce qui opprime l’être humain. La …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Walter Hasenclever — Gedenktafel am Haus Ludwig Barnay Platz 3 in der Künstlerkolonie Berlin …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hasenclever — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Alexander Hasenclever (1918–1990), deutscher Arzt und Berliner Politiker Andreas Hasenclever (* 1962), deutscher Professor für Friedensforschung und Internationale Politik Christa Hasenclever (1906–1992),… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hasenclever — Hasenclever,   1) Johann Peter, Maler, * Remscheid 18. 5. 1810, ✝ Düsseldorf 16. 12. 1853; Vertreter der Düsseldorfer Schule, studierte an der Düsseldorfer Akademie bei W. von Schadow und F. T. Hildebrandt, ab 1838 in München. 1840 unternahm er …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Hasenclever — may refer to:* Walter Hasenclever (1890–1940), German writer * Wilhelm Hasenclever (1837–1889), German politician …   Wikipedia

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