Alfred Lichtenstein (23 August 1889 – 25 September 1914) was a German

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

writer. From a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family,Vivian Liska, "Messianic Endgames in German-Jewish Expressionist Literature" in ''Europa! Europa?: The Avant-Garde, Modernism and the Fate of a Continent'', Walter de Gruyter (2009), p. 346 Lichtenstein grew up in Berlin as the son of a manufacturer. He studied law in

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...

. His was first noticed after publishing poems and short stories in a grotesque style, which invited comparison with a friend of his,

Jakob van Hoddis Jakob van Hoddis (16 May 1887 – May/June 1942) was the pen name of the Jewish German expressionist poet Hans Davidsohn, of which "Van Hoddis" is an anagram. His most famous poem ''Weltende'' (''End of the world''), published on 11 January 1911 ...

. Indeed, there were claims of imitation: while Hoddis created the style, Lichtenstein has enlarged it, it was said. Lichtenstein played with this reputation by writing a short story, called "The Winner", which describes in a scurillous way the random friendship of two young men, wherein one falls victim to the other. By using false names he often made fun of real people from the Berlin literary scene, including himself as Kuno Kohn, a silent shy boy; in "The Winner" a virile van Hoddis kills Kuno Kohn at the end of the story. Lichtenstein admired the style of the French

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

poet

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics. Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...

and not only for his ironic writings. Like Jarry, Lichtenstein rode his bicycle through the town. However he was not to grow old: in 1914, he fell at the front in World War I.

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* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lichtenstein, Alfred 1889 births 1914 deaths German Jewish military personnel of World War I Jewish poets Writers from Berlin German Expressionist writers German military personnel killed in World War I People from Wilmersdorf Military personnel of Bavaria German male poets 20th-century German poets 20th-century German male writers