Else Lasker-Schuler
(born Feb. 11, 1869, Elberfeld, Ger.?died Jan. 22, 1945,
Jerusalem
, Palestine) was a German poet, short-story writer, playwright, and novelist of the early 20th century.
Of Jewish parentage, Schuler settled in
Berlin
after her marriage to the physician Berthold Lasker in 1894 (divorced 1903). In Berlin she frequented
avant-garde
literary circles, and her lyric poems and short stories began appearing in periodicals. Her second marriage (1903?11) was to Georg Lewin, the editor of the leading Expressionist journal
Der Sturm
, to whom she gave the pseudonym Herwarth Walden. Her first book, a
poetry
collection entitled
Styx
(1902), was followed by
Meine Wunder
(1911; “My Miracles”),
Hebraische Balladen
(1913; “Hebrew Ballads”), and several other volumes of
lyric poetry
. Her other important works are the play
Die Wupper
(1909), the autobiographical
novel
Mein Herz
(1912; “My Heart”), and the short stories collected in
Der Prinz von Theben
(1914; “The Prince of Thebes”) and
Der Wunderrabbiner von Barcelona
(1921; “The Wonder Rabbi of Barcelona”). She emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 after the Nazis came to power in
Germany
, and in 1940 she resettled in Jerusalem in Palestine. She had always led an
eccentric
and unpredictable life, and she spent her last years in poverty.
Britannica Quiz
A Study of Poetry
Lasker-Schuler’s poems exploit a rich vein of fantasy and symbolism and alternate between
pathos
and ecstasy in their intensely personal evocation of her childhood and parents,
romantic
passion, art, and religion. Many of her short stories reinterpret Arabian nights tales in a mode of modern fantasy rich with visual images. Poet
Gottfried Benn
is credited with calling Lasker-Schuler Germany’s greatest lyric poet.