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msand3's review
4.0
4.5 stars. There is a strange, dark beauty to the poetry of Gottfried Benn, a brilliant Expressionist whose embrace of the Third Reich has caused him to be rarely translated and under-studied in the United States. The early poems here are morbid examinations of disease, death, and dead bodies (his early collection centered on the morgue) based on his time as a medical student. They are stark evocations of the alienation of those who came of age during the Great War. His poetry between the wars focuses more on loneliness and death, while his poetry during the Third Reich becomes more inward, reflecting his own isolation.
After realizing regret for embracing the Reich and being banned from writing and publishing, he enters his “statische gedichte” phrase (static poetry) in the late-30s. These are works that celebrate those who are isolated, disillusioned, and lonely. One gets the feeling that this was his way of coping after so many years of railing against the individualism of left-wing intellectuals had brought him, ironically, alone and unable to publish. There are moments when you almost feel sorry for Benn (almost) as he was unable to publish under the NAZIs whom he initially supported and then unable to publish directly after the war as persona non grata in the post-war German literary world.
The final stage of his career includes many poems about growing old and death (no surprise there!). It’s unfortunate that Benn’s political ideology was so abhorrent, as his poetry in all phases of his career is compelling and infinitely readable: a haunting testament of personal and social paralysis and decay. Perhaps it’s only fitting that his politics placed him in a unique position to examine that social disintegration from within (while, again ironically, thinking that he was supporting a cause that would re-construct a certain social order).
His poetry is a must-read, and his life is well-worth studying, if only as a warning of the dangers of placing art at the behest of the state, especially when that state becomes antithetical to both art and intellectualism.
After realizing regret for embracing the Reich and being banned from writing and publishing, he enters his “statische gedichte” phrase (static poetry) in the late-30s. These are works that celebrate those who are isolated, disillusioned, and lonely. One gets the feeling that this was his way of coping after so many years of railing against the individualism of left-wing intellectuals had brought him, ironically, alone and unable to publish. There are moments when you almost feel sorry for Benn (almost) as he was unable to publish under the NAZIs whom he initially supported and then unable to publish directly after the war as persona non grata in the post-war German literary world.
The final stage of his career includes many poems about growing old and death (no surprise there!). It’s unfortunate that Benn’s political ideology was so abhorrent, as his poetry in all phases of his career is compelling and infinitely readable: a haunting testament of personal and social paralysis and decay. Perhaps it’s only fitting that his politics placed him in a unique position to examine that social disintegration from within (while, again ironically, thinking that he was supporting a cause that would re-construct a certain social order).
His poetry is a must-read, and his life is well-worth studying, if only as a warning of the dangers of placing art at the behest of the state, especially when that state becomes antithetical to both art and intellectualism.
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