Klabund

After completing his Abitur (upper secondary school leaving certificate) with the highest marks in 1909 in Frankfurt (Oder), he studied chemistry and pharmacology in Munich.

When World War I broke out, he greeted it with enthusiasm, like many other writers of the time, wrote various patriotic poems.

He was not drafted into the military due to his tuberculosis, and in fact during the war years he often spent time in Swiss sanatoria.

In 1917 he published an open letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II in the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung calling for his abdication, and was charged with treason and lèse-majesté as a result.

Then in 1925, his play Der Kreidekreis (The Chalk Circle), based on a Chinese story, was first produced in Meissen.

He was buried in his native Crossen (now Krosno Odrzańskie) and was eulogized by his friend and fellow writer Gottfried Benn.

Klabund completed 25 plays and 14 novels—several of which were published only after his death—numerous short stories, many adaptations, and several works on the history of literature.