Vernichtung

Gert Vonhoff (29th April 2015)

Text

Vernichtung

Die Himmel wehen
Blut marschiert
Marschiert
Auf
Tausend Füßen.

Die Himmel wehen
Blut zerstürmt
Zerstürmt
Auf
Tausend Schneiden.

Die Himmel wehen
Blut zerrinnt
Zerrinnt
In
Tausend Fäden.

Die Himmel wehen
Blut zersiegt
Zersiegt
In
Tausend Scharten.

Die Himmel wehen
Blut zerschläft
Zerschläft
Zu
Tausend Toden.

Die Himmel wehen
Tod zerwebt
Zerwebt
Zu
Tausend Füßen.

Source

Der Sturm, Volume 5, Number 19-20, 1 January 1915

Related Resources

http://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/cgi-bin/bluemtn?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=bmtnabg&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN---

Citation

Original text: August Stramm; Audio File: Gert Vonhoff, recorded 29.04.2015, “Vernichtung,” War in other words, accessed April 29, 2024, https://warinotherwords.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/7.

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Item Relations

Item: Devastation

translation of

This Item

Description

Stramm wrote ‘Vernichtung’ (‘Devastation’) in Neubreisach in November 1914 and it was published in the January issue of Der Sturm, 1915.

About the writer

Born in Münster (Westfalia) in 1874, August Stramm grew up in Düren, Eupen and Aachen. He visited the ‘Post- und Telegraphenschule’ in Berlin and started publishing alongside his education in 1903. Enrolled as a guest student at the Berlin University, he received a PhD from the University of Wittenberg/Halle for a thesis on worldwide postal charges. Back in Berlin, he increased his literary work and got to know Herwath Walden, the publisher of the magazine Der Sturm and himself a key figure in pre-War Berlin culture. The newly established contacts reassured Stramm in his radical working with language. Since he was called to arms in August 1914, he focussed on war poetry, of which he wrote about 70, mainly short pieces. He first served at the Oberrhein and in Alsatia, before he was sent to the Western Front in January 1915 where he immediately was confronted with the trench warfare. In April 1915 he was moved to the Eastern Front, where he died on September, 1^st the same year.

In his writing, Stramm engages with language in a unique way, making use of the creative powers of the German language like no one else of his generation. Though he shares insights and fears with other Expressionist authors, he is more radical in his innovative playing with words. His syntax is often twisted and distorted to the ultimate level, words shift their classes and with it new and sometimes surprising meanings arise from his ‘working in the language’. His war poems are radically reduced experiments in wording, for which the Germans coined the phrase ‘Wortgedichte’.

Creator

Original text: August Stramm;

Audio File: Gert Vonhoff, recorded 29.04.2015

Date of Publication

1st January 1915

Rights

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Format

Language

German

Contributor of item

Gert Vonhoff

Type

Poem