This list contains the names of

individuals An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own need ...

(of any

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...

) who wrote

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

in the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

. Most are identified as "German poets", but some are not

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

A

Abraham a Sancta Clara Abraham a Sancta Clara (July 2, 1644December 1, 1709) was an Augustinian monk. Early life He was born Johann Ulrich Megerle, in Kreenheinstetten, Germany. He was described as "a very eccentric but popular Augustinian monk".Chambers Biographic ...

Friedrich Achleitner Friedrich Achleitner (23 May 1930 – 27 March 2019) was an Austrian poet and architecture critic. As a member of the Wiener Gruppe, he wrote concrete poems and experimental literature. His magnum opus is a multi-volume documentation of 20th-cent ...

Dietmar von Aist Dietmar von Aist (c. 1115 – c. 1171) was a Minnesinger from a baronial family in the Duchy of Austria, whose work is representative of the lyric poetry in the Danube region. Life One Dietmar von Aist is mentioned by name from about 1139 onwards ...

Heinrich Albert (composer) Heinrich Albert (also Heinrich Alberti) (28 June 1604 – 6 October 1651) was a German composer and poet of the 17th century. He was a member of the Königsberg Poetic Society (''Königsberger Dichterkreis''). As a song composer, he was strongly ...

* Der wilde Alexander * Hermann Allmers * Peter Paul Althaus *

Günther Anders Günther Anders (born Günther Siegmund Stern, 12 July 1902 – 17 December 1992) was a German-Austrian Jewish émigré, philosopher, essayist and journalist. Trained in the phenomenological tradition, he developed a philosophical anthropolo ...

Alfred Andersch Alfred Hellmuth Andersch (; 4 February 1914 – 21 February 1980) was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland. Mar ...

Ernst Moritz Arndt Ernst Moritz Arndt (26 December 1769 – 29 January 1860) was a German nationalist historian, writer and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany. Arndt had to flee to Swe ...

Achim von Arnim Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim (26 January 1781 – 21 January 1831), better known as Achim von Arnim, was a German poet, novelist, and together with Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff, a leading figure of German Romanticism. ...

Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 178520 January 1859), born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual art ...

Hans Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter, and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born in Straßburg (now Stras ...

H. C. Artmann Hans Carl Artmann (12 June 1921 – 4 December 2000), also known as Ib Hansen, was an Austrian poet and writer, most popular for his early poems written in Viennese (''med ana schwoazzn dintn'', 1958), which however, never after were to b ...

Hans Erasmus Aßmann Hans Erasmus Aßmann, Freiherr von Abschatz (4 February 1646 – 22 April 1699) was a German statesman and poet from the second Silesian school. Life Abschatz was born at Würbitz ( Wierzbnica) in Lower Silesia. Even though his parents died ...

Hartmann von Aue Hartmann von Aue, also known as Hartmann von Ouwe, (born ''c.'' 1160–70, died ''c.'' 1210–20) was a German knight and poet. With his works including ''Erec'', '' Iwein'', ''Gregorius'', and ''Der arme Heinrich'', he introduced the Arthurian ...

Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg, also known under the name Anastasius Grün (11 April 180612 September 1876), was an Austrian poet and liberal politician from Carniola, a former Habsburg crown land in today's Slovenia. Biography He was born ...

Rose Ausländer Rose Ausländer (born Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer; May 11, 1901 – January 3, 1988) was a Jewish poet writing in German and English. Born in Czernowitz in the Bukovina, she lived through its tumultuous history of belonging to the Austro-Hungarian E ...

B

Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. Biography Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her fa ...

Hugo Ball Hugo Ball (; 22 February 1886 – 14 September 1927) was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry. ...

* Wolfgang Bauer *

Konrad Bayer Konrad Bayer (17 December 1932 – October 1964) was an Austrian writer and poet. A member of the Wiener Gruppe, he combined apparently irreconcilable elements—violence, hermeticism, pessimism, ecstasy, banality—and influences (dadaism, surre ...

Johannes Robert Becher Johannes Robert Becher (, 22 May 1891 – 11 October 1958) was a German politician, novelist, and poet. He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before World War II. At one time, he was part of the literary avant-garde, writin ...

Richard Beer-Hofmann Richard Beer-Hofmann (11 July 1866 in Vienna – 26 September 1945 in New York City) was an Austrian dramatist and poet. Beer-Hofmann was born to Jewish parents. His mother died within a week of his birth and after her death, he was adopted a ...

Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951. Biography and work Family and beginnings Go ...

Michael Beheim :''The article may be significantly expanded by the text from German wikipedia'' Michael Beheim (also Michel Behaim, Beham or Behm, 1416 – c.1472) was a wandering singer from the modern-day German state Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ...

Werner Bergengruen Werner Bergengruen (September 16, 1892 – September 4, 1964) was a Baltic German novelist and poet. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Life and career Bergengruen was born in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, which at that ti ...

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilizati ...

F.W. Bernstein F. W. Bernstein (born Fritz Weigle; 4 March 1938 – 20 December 2018) was a German poet, cartoonist, satirist, and academic. He worked for the satirical biweekly ''Pardon (magazine), pardon''. After teaching at schools, he was professor of caric ...

Marcel Beyer Marcel Beyer (born 23 November 1965) is a German writer. Life Marcel Beyer was born in Tailfingen, Württemberg, and grew up in Kiel and Neuss. From 1987 to 1991 he studied German language and literature, English studies and literary studies a ...

Horst Bienek Horst Bienek (May 7, 1930 in Gleiwitz – December 7, 1990 in Munich) was a German novelist and poet. Life Born in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany (today Gliwice, Poland), Bienek was forced to leave there in 1945, when Germans were expelled ...

Otto Julius Bierbaum Otto Julius Bierbaum (28 June 1865 – 1 February 1910) was a German writer. Bierbaum was born in Grünberg, Silesia. After studying in Leipzig, he became a journalist and editor for the journals ''Die freie Bühne'', ''Pan'' and '' Die Insel'' ...

Wolf Biermann Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song "Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976. Early life Biermann was b ...

Johannes Bobrowski Johannes Bobrowski (originally ''Johannes Konrad Bernhard Bobrowski''; 9 April 1917 – 2 September 1965) was a German lyric poet, narrative writer, adaptor and essayist. Life Bobrowski was born on 9 April 1917Bobrowski, Johannes (1984). ''S ...

Paul Boldt Paul Boldt (1885, Christfelde, West Prussia - 1921, Freiburg im Breisgau) was one of the poets of German Expressionism. Boldt was born in the town of Christfelde an der Weichsel in the countryside of West Prussia, an area which is now a part of ...

Wolfgang Borchert Wolfgang Borchert (; 20 May 1921 – 20 November 1947) was a German author and playwright whose work was strongly influenced by his experience of dictatorship and his service in the ''Wehrmacht'' during the Second World War. His work is among t ...

Nicolas Born Nicolas Born (31 December 1937 in Duisburg – 7 December 1979 in Lüchow-Dannenberg) was a German writer. Nicolas Born was – together with Rolf Dieter Brinkmann – one of the most important and most innovative German poets of his generation. ...

Thomas Brasch Thomas Brasch (19 February 1945 – 3 November 2001) was a German author, poet and film director. Life Born in Westow, Yorkshire, England, Thomas Brasch was the son of German Jewish Communist émigré parents. In 1947, the family returned to Eas ...

Volker Braun Volker Braun (born 7 May 1939 in Dresden) is a German writer. His works include ''Provokation für mich'' (''Provocation for me'') – a collection of poems written between 1959 and 1964 and published in 1965, a play, ''Die Kipper'' (''The Dumpers ...

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

* Helene Brehm * Clemens von Brentano *

Theo Breuer Theo Breuer (born 30 March 1956) is a German poet, essayist, editor, translator and publisher. Life and work Theo Breuer was born in Bürvenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany and educated at Cologne University where he studied German an ...

Rolf Dieter Brinkmann Rolf Dieter Brinkmann (16 April 1940 – 23 April 1975) was a German writer of poems, short stories, a novel, essays, letters, and diaries. Life and work Rolf Dieter Brinkmann is considered an important forerunner of the German so-called ''Pop-Li ...

Georg Britting Georg Britting (born 17 February 1891 in Regensburg; died 27 April 1964 in Munich) was a German poet, short story writer, and essayist. Life Britting spent his early years in Regensburg. His writing career began in 1911, when he began publishi ...

Hermann Broch Hermann Broch (; 1 November 1886 – 30 May 1951) was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: '' The Sleepwalkers'' (''Die Schlafwandler,'' 1930–32) and ''The Death of Virgil'' (''Der Tod des Vergil,'' 1945). ...

Barthold Heinrich Brockes Barthold Heinrich Brockes (September 22, 1680 – January 16, 1747) was a German poet. He was born in Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. He studied jurisprudence at Halle, and after extensive travels in Italy, France a ...

August Buchner August Buchner (2 November 1591 – 12 February 1661) was a German philologist, poet and literary scholar, an influential professor of poetry and rhetoric at the University of Wittenberg. Career Buchner was born in Dresden the son of Paul Buchne ...

Georg Büchner Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchn ...

Gottfried August Bürger Gottfried August Bürger (31 December 1747 – 8 June 1794) was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, '' Lenore'', found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English and Russian ada ...

Hermann Burger Hermann Burger (10 July 1942 – 28 February 1989), was a Swiss poet, novelist and essayist. In his creative works Burger often focused on society's lonely outsiders and, increasingly, the inevitability of death. His virtuosity in applying literar ...

Erika Burkart Erika Burkart (8 February 1922, Aarau – 14 April 2010) was a Swiss writer and poet. She was the recipient of many awards, among them the Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer-Preis, the Gottfried-Keller-Preis, the Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, and the Wolfgang-Amad ...

Wilhelm Busch Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day. Busch drew on the tropes of f ...

C

Paul-Henri Campbell Paul-Henri Campbell (born 1982) is a German-American author. He is a bilingual author of poetry and prose in English and German. He studied classical philology, with a concentration on ancient Greek, as well as Catholic theology at the National U ...

Hans Carossa Hans Carossa (15 December 1878 in Bad Tölz, Kingdom of Bavaria – 12 September 1956 in Rittsteig near Passau) was a German novelist and poet, known mostly for his autobiographical novels, and his "innere Emigration" ( inner emigration) during ...

Daniel Casper von Lohenstein Daniel Casper (25 January 1635 in Nimptsch, Niederschlesien – 28 April 1683 in Breslau, Niederschlesien), also spelled Daniel Caspar, and referred to from 1670 as Daniel Casper von Lohenstein, was a Baroque Silesian playwright, lawyer, diploma ...

Paul Celan Paul Celan (; ; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a Romanian-born German-language poet and translator. He was born as Paul Antschel to a Jewish family in Cernăuți (German: Czernowitz), in the then Kingdom of Romania (now Chernivtsi, U ...

Conrad Celtes Conrad Celtes (german: Konrad Celtes; la, Conradus Celtis (Protucius); 1 February 1459 – 4 February 1508) was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and poet of the German Renaissance born in Franconia (nowadays part of Bavaria). He led the ...

Adelbert von Chamisso Adelbert von Chamisso (; 30 January 178121 August 1838) was a German poet and botanist, author of ''Peter Schlemihl'', a famous story about a man who sold his shadow. He was commonly known in French as Adelbert de Chamisso (or Chamissot) de Bonc ...

Hanns Cibulka Hanns Cibulka (20 September 1920, in Jägerndorf, Czechoslovakia – 20 June 2004, in Gotha, Germany) was a German poet and diarist A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happene ...

Matthias Claudius Matthias Claudius (15 August 1740 – 21 January 1815) was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of “Asmus”. Life Claudius was born at Reinfeld, Holstein, Reinfeld, near Lübeck, and studied at Jena. He spent the gre ...

Heinz Czechowski Heinz Czechowski (7 February 1935 – 21 October 2009) was a German poet and dramatist. At the age of ten, Czechowski survived the highly destructive bombing of his birthplace of Dresden. After training in surveying and graphic design, he studied ...

* Daniel Czepko von Reigersfeld

D

Simon Dach Simon Dach (29 July 1605 – 15 April 1659) was a German lyrical poet and hymnwriter, born in Memel, Duchy of Prussia (now Klaipėda in Lithuania). Early life Although brought up in humble circumstances (his father was a poorly paid court int ...

Theodor Däubler Theodor Däubler (17 August 1876 – 13 June 1934) was a poet and cultural critic in the German language. He was born in Trieste, then part of Austro-Hungary and has been described as "Trieste's most important German-speaking writer". Early life ...

Georg Friedrich Daumer Georg Friedrich Daumer (Nuremberg, 5 March 1800 – Würzburg, 14 December 1875) was a German poet and philosopher. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native city, at that time directed by the famous philosopher Hegel. In 1817 he entered th ...

Max Dauthendey Max Dauthendey (25 July 1867 – 29 August 1918) was a German author and painter of the impressionist period. He was born in Würzburg and died in Malang. Together with Richard Dehmel and Eduard von Keyserling, he is regarded as one of the m ...

Franz Josef Degenhardt Franz Josef Degenhardt (3 December 193114 November 2011) was a German poet, satirist, novelist, and – first and foremost – a folksinger/songwriter ( Liedermacher) with decidedly left-wing politics. He was also a lawyer, bearing the academic d ...

Richard Dehmel Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (18 November 1863 – 8 February 1920) was a German poet and writer. Life A forester's son, Richard Dehmel was born in Hermsdorf near Wendisch Buchholz (now a part of Münchehofe) in the Brandenburg Province, Ki ...

Friedrich Christian Delius Friedrich Christian Delius (13 February 1943 – 30 May 2022), also known by his pen name F.C. Delius, was a German novelist. He wrote books about historic events, such as the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and RAF terrorism. Four of his novels were tr ...

Franz von Dingelstedt Franz von Dingelstedt (30 June 1814 – 15 May 1881) was a German poet, dramatist and theatre administrator. Life and career Dingestedt was born at Halsdorf, Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), Germany, and later studied at the University of Marburg ...

Hugo Dittberner Hugo Dittberner (born Gieboldehausen 16 November 1944) is a German writer. Early years Hugo Dittberner is the son of an accountant. Between 1956 and 1965 Dittberner attended a boarding school in Bad Nenndorf. After successfully completing his ...

* Reinhard Döhl *

Tankred Dorst Tankred Dorst (19 December 1925 – 1 June 2017) was a German playwright and storyteller. Dorst lived and worked in Munich. His farces, parables, one-act-plays and adaptations were inspired by the theatre of the absurd and the works of Ionesco ...

Lebrecht Blücher Dreves Lebrecht Blücher Dreves (12 September 1816 – 19 December 1870) was a German poet and translator of poetry from Hamburg. Biography The Prussian general Blucher was his baptismal sponsor, whence his name. At age nineteen he submitted a ...

Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Baroness Anna Elisabeth Franziska Adolphine Wilhelmine Louise Maria von Droste zu Hülshoff, known as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (; 10 January 179724 May 1848), was a 19th-century German poet, novelist, and composer of Classical music. She was ...

E

Albert Ehrenstein Albert Ehrenstein (23 December 1886 – 8 April 1950) was an Austrian-born German Expressionist poet. His poetry exemplifies rejection of bourgeois values and fascination with the Orient, particularly with China. He spent most of his life in B ...

Günter Eich Günter Eich (; 1 February 1907 – 20 December 1972) was a German lyricist, dramatist, and author. He was born in Lebus, on the Oder River, and educated in Leipzig, Berlin, and Paris. Life Eich made his first appearance in print with some poems ...

Joseph von Eichendorff Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 178826 November 1857) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism.Cf. J. A. Cuddon: '' ...

Adolf Endler Adolf Endler (20 September 1930 – 2 August 2009) was a lyric poet, essayist and prose author who played a central role in subcultural activities that attacked and challenged an outdated model of socialist realism in the German Democratic Repu ...

Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...

Heinz Erhardt Heinz Erhardt (; 20 February 1909 – 5 June 1979) was a German comedian, musician, entertainer, actor, and poet. Life Heinz Erhardt was born in Riga, the son of Baltic German Kapellmeister Gustav Erhardt. He lived most of his childhood at his ...

Wolfram von Eschenbach Wolfram von Eschenbach (; – ) was a German knight, poet and composer, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of medieval German literature. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry. Life Little is known of Wolfram's life. There are ...

F

Gustav Falke Gustav Falke (11 January 1853 – 8 February 1916) was a German writer. Life Falke was born in Lübeck to merchant Johann Friedrich Christian Falke and his wife Elisabeth Franziska Hoyer. The historians Johannes and were his uncles, and the t ...

August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben August Heinrich Hoffmann (, calling himself von Fallersleben, after his hometown; 2 April 179819 January 1874) was a German poet. He is best known for writing "Das Lied der Deutschen", whose third stanza is now the national anthem of Germany, an ...

Fereydoun Farrokhzad Fereydoun Farrokhzad ( fa, فریدون فرخزاد; October 7, 1938 – August 3, 1992) was an Iranian showman, host, poet, actor, political activist, singer, humanitarian, and writer. He is best known for his television variety show ''The Silv ...

Jörg Fauser Jörg Fauser (16 July 1944 – 17 July 1987) was a German writer, poet and journalist. The influence of the American beat generation literature on his works is well known. Together with Carl Weissner and other colleagues he published several is ...

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben (full name: Ernst Maria Johann Karl ''Freiherr'' von Feuchtersleben; 29 April 18063 September 1849), was an Austrian physician, poet and philosopher. He was a member of the von Feuchtersleben Family Life He was born ...

Frank Findeiß Frank Findeiß (born September 19, 1971 in Trier) is a German poet. Life and work Frank Findeiß was born in Trier (Rhineland-Palatinate) in 1971. After his abitur at the Staatliche Hilda-Gymnasium in Koblenz and his military service in the H ...

Johann Fischart Johann Baptist Fischart (c. 1545 – 1591) was a German satirist and publicist. Biography Fischart was born, probably, at Strasbourg (but according to some accounts at Mainz), in or about the year 1545, and was educated at Worms in the house of K ...

Cäsar Flaischlen Cäsar Flaischlen (12 May 1864 – 16 October 1920) was a German poet. He is best known as the author of "Hab' Sonne im Herzen" ("Have Sunshine in Your Heart"), which has been translated into various languages. Composers such as Pauline Volkstei ...

Paul Fleming Paul Fleming may refer to: * Paul Fleming (footballer) (born 1967), English professional footballer *Paul Fleming (poet) (1609–1640), German poet * Paul Fleming (boxer) (born 1988), Australian Olympic boxer *Paul Fleming (restaurateur), American ...

Walter Flex Walter Flex (6 July 1887 – 16 October 1917) was a German author of ''The Wanderer between the Two Worlds: An Experience of War'' (''Der Wanderer zwischen beiden Welten'') of 1916, a war novel dealing with themes of humanity, friendship, and suff ...

Hans Folz Hans Folz ( 1437 – January 1513) was a German author of the late medieval or early Renaissance period. Folz was born in Worms. He was made a citizen of the city of Nuremberg, Germany in 1459 and master barber of the city in 1486. Folz was a refo ...

Theodor Fontane Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known toda ...

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué (); (12 February 1777 – 23 January 1843) was a German writer of the Romantic style. Biography He was born at Brandenburg an der Havel, of a family of French Huguenot origin, as evidenced in ...

Franzobel Franzobel is the pseudonym of the Austrian writer (Franz) Stefan Griebl. He was born on 1 March 1967 in Vöcklabruck. In 1997 he won the Wolfgang Weyrauch Prize and in 1998, the Kassel Literary Prize, amongst numerous other literary awards. In 2 ...

Heinrich Frauenlob Heinrich Frauenlob (between 1250 and 1260 – 29 November 1318), sometimes known as Henry of Meissen (''Heinrich von Meißen''), was a Middle High German poet, a representative of both the '' Sangspruchdichtung'' and ''Minnesang'' genres. He was o ...

Ferdinand Freiligrath Ferdinand Freiligrath (17 June 1810 – 18 March 1876) was a German poet, translator and liberal agitator, who is considered part of the Young Germany movement. Life Freiligrath was born in Detmold, Principality of Lippe. His father was a teacher. ...

Erich Fried Erich Fried (6 May 1921 – 22 November 1988) was an Austrian-born poet, writer, and translator. He initially became known to a broader public in both Germany and Austria for his political poetry, and later for his love poems. As a writer, he mo ...

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity, individuality, responsibility, morality, and political commitment. The use of irony is a significant featur ...

Gerhard Fritsch Gerhard Fritsch (28 March 1924 – 22 March 1969) was an Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German di ...

Franz Fühmann Franz Fühmann (15 January 1922 – 8 July 1984) was a German writer who lived and worked in East Germany. He wrote in a variety of formats, including short stories, essays, screenplays and children's books. Influenced by Nazism in his youth ...

Louis Fürnberg Louis Fürnberg (24 May 1909 in Jihlava, Moravia – 23 June 1957 in Weimar, East Germany) was a Czechoslovakian-German writer, poet and journalist, composer and diplomat. He wrote the ''Lied der Partei'' ("The Party is always right"), the song t ...

G

Emanuel Geibel Emanuel von Geibel (17 October 18156 April 1884) was a German poet and playwright. Life Geibel was born at Lübeck, the son of a pastor. He was originally intended for his father's profession and studied at Bonn and Berlin, but his real interests ...

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (4 July 171513 December 1769) was a German poet, one of the forerunners of the golden age of German literature that was ushered in by Lessing. Biography Gellert was born at Hainichen in Saxony, at the foot of the ...

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literar ...

Paul Gerhardt Paul Gerhardt (12 March 1607 – 27 May 1676) was a German theologian, Lutheran minister and hymnodist. Biography Gerhardt was born into a middle-class family at Gräfenhainichen, a small town between Halle and Wittenberg. His father died in ...

Robert Gernhardt Robert Gernhardt (13 December 1937 – 30 June 2006) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist and poet. Life Robert Gernhardt was born the son of a judge and a chemist in Tallinn, where his family was part of the Baltic German minority. In ...

Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg (3 January 1737 – 1 November 1823) was a German poet and critic. Gerstenberg was born in Tønder, Denmark. After attending school in Husum and at the Christianeum Hamburg, and studying law at the University o ...

Adolf Glassbrenner Adolf Glassbrenner (27 March 1810, in Berlin25 September 1876) was a German humorist and satirist, considered part of the Young Germany Movement. Glassbrenner was born in Berlin. After working for a short time in a merchant's office, he turned to ...

Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (2 April 1719 – 18 February 1803) was a German poet, commonly associated with the Enlightenment movement. Life Gleim was born at the small town of Ermsleben in the Principality of Halberstadt, then part of Prussia ...

Leopold Friedrich Günther von Goeckingk Leopold Friedrich Günther von Goeckingk, also Göckingk (13 July 1748 – 18 February 1828) was a German lyric poet, journalist, and Prussian official. Life Goeckingk was born in Gröningen (Landkreis Börde) and went to school in Halberstadt, ...

Albrecht Goes Albrecht Goes (22 March 1908 – 23 February 2000) was a German writer and Protestant theologian. Life Albrecht Goes was born in 1908 in the Protestant rectory in Langenbeutingen. He spent his childhood there, but his mother died in 1911 and in 1 ...

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...

Johann Nikolaus Götz Johann Nikolaus Götz (July 9, 1721 – November 4, 1781) was a German poet from Worms. Biography Götz was born in Worms. He studied theology at Halle (1739–1742), where he became intimate with the poets Johann W. L. Gleim and Johann Peter ...

Yvan Goll Yvan Goll (also: Iwan Goll, Ivan Goll; born Isaac Lang; 29 March 1891 – 27 February 1950) was a French-German poet who was bilingual and wrote in both French and German. He had close ties to both German expressionism and to French surrealism ...

Eugen Gomringer Eugen Gomringer (born 20 January 1925 in Cachuela Esperanza, Bolivia) is a Bolivian-born German concrete poet. He is head of the Institut für Konstruktive Kunst und Konkrete Poesie (IKKP) in Rehau, Germany. Between 1977 and 1990, he was a profess ...

Peter Gosse Peter Gosse (born 6 October 1938 in Leipzig) is a German poet, prose author and essayist. Life Peter Gosse first completed a study of high frequency technology in Moscow. After an occupation as an engineer, he worked as a freelance writer in E ...

Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter (3 September 1746 – 18 March 1797) was a German poet and dramatist. Biography He was born at Gotha. He started out studying law, but early on was influenced to write for the theatre. After the completion of his univer ...

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (born Graß; ; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Da ...

Fritz Grasshoff Fritz Graßhoff (9 December 1913 – 9 February 1997) was a German painter, poet and songwriter. He was known for hits sung by Lale Andersen, Freddy Quinn and Hans Albers. As a painter, he participated in important exhibitions; as a writer, he ...

Martin Greif Martin Joel Greif (February 4, 1938, The Bronx, New York City - November 17, 1996, Cork (city), Cork, Ireland) was an American editor, lecturer, publisher and writer. He was the uncle of heavy metal music personality and lawyer Eric Greif. Backg ...

Franz Grillparzer Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (15 January 1791 – 21 January 1872) was an Austrian writer who was considered to be the leading Austrian dramatist of the 19th century. His plays were and are frequently performed at the famous Burgtheater in Vien ...

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621/22 – 17 August 1676) was a German author. He is best known for his 1669 picaresque novel ''Simplicius Simplicissimus'' (german: link=no, Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus) and the accompanyi ...

Klaus Groth Klaus Groth (24 April 1819 – 1 June 1899) was a Low German poet. Biography Groth was born in Heide, in Ditmarschen, the western part of the Duchy of Holstein. He was the oldest son of Hartwig Groth, a miller, and his wife Anna Christina. H ...

Durs Grünbein Durs Grünbein (born 1962) is a German poet and essayist. Life and career Durs Grünbein was born and grew up in Dresden. He studied Theater Studies in East Berlin, to which he moved in 1985. Since the Peaceful Revolution nonviolently toppled ...

Andreas Gryphius Andreas Gryphius (german: Andreas Greif; 2 October 161616 July 1664) was a German poet and playwright. With his eloquent sonnets, which contains "The Suffering, Frailty of Life and the World", he is considered one of the most important Baroque ...

Johann Christian Günther Johann Christian Günther (8 April 1695 – 15 March 1723) was a German poet from Striegau in Lower Silesia. After attending the gymnasium at Schweidnitz, he was sent in 1715 by his father, a country doctor, to study medicine at Wittenberg; b ...

H

Peter Hacks Peter Hacks (21 March 1928 – 28 August 2003) was a German playwright, author, and essayist. Hacks was born in Breslau (Wrocław), Lower Silesia. Displaced by World War II, Hacks settled in Munich in 1947, where he made acquaintance with T ...

Johannes Hadlaub Johannes Hadlaub ( fl. 1300, d. before 1340) is one of the Minnesingers whose works are recorded in ''Codex Manesse''. He was a citizen of Zürich, and is on record as buying a house there in 1302. There are 51 songs by Hadlaub in the Codex Man ...

Friedrich von Hagedorn Friedrich von Hagedorn (23 April 1708 – 28 October 1754), Germany, German poet, was born at Hamburg, where his father, a man of scientific and literary taste, was Danish ambassador. His younger brother, Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn, Christian L ...

Reinmar von Hagenau Reinmar von Hagenau (also Reinmar der Alte, ''Reinmar the Elder'') was a German Minnesänger of the late twelfth century who composed and performed love-songs in Middle High German. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the greatest Minnesänge ...

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored t ...

Georg Philipp Harsdörffer Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1 November 1607 – 17 September 1658) was a Jurist, Baroque-period German poet and translator. Born in Nuremberg, he studied law at Altdorf and Strassburg. He studied at the University of Strassburg under professo ...

Otto Erich Hartleben Otto Erich Hartleben (3 June 1864 – in Clausthal; 11 February 1905 in Salò) was a German poet and dramatist from Clausthal, known for his translation of ''Pierrot Lunaire''. Childhood, Education and Marriage Orphaned as a child, Hartlebe ...

Peter Härtling Peter Härtling (; 13 November 1933 – 10 July 2017) was a German writer, poet, publisher and journalist. He received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his major contribution to German literature. Biography Härtling wa ...

Walter Hasenclever Walter Georg Alfred Hasenclever (8 July 1890 – 22 June 1940) was a German Expressionist poet and playwright. His works were banned when the Nazis came to power and he went into exile in France. There he was imprisoned as a "foreign enemy". H ...

Wilhelm Hauff Wilhelm Hauff (29 November 180218 November 1827) was a Württembergian poet and novelist. Early life Hauff was born in Stuttgart, the son of August Friedrich Hauff, a secretary in the Württemberg ministry of foreign affairs, and Hedwig Wilhelmi ...

Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He recei ...

Friedrich von Hausen Friedrich von Hausen (Middle High German: Friderich von Hûsen) was a medieval German poet, one of the earliest of the Minnesingers; born sometime between 1150–60; d. 6 May 1190. Life His name is mentioned frequently in legal documents, for the ...

Albrecht Haushofer Albrecht Georg Haushofer (7 January 1903 – 23 April 1945) was a German geographer, diplomat, author and member of the German Resistance to Nazism. Life Haushofer was born in Munich, the son of the retired World War I general and geographer K ...

Christian Friedrich Hebbel Christian Friedrich Hebbel (18 March 1813 – 13 December 1863) was a German poet and dramatist. Biography Hebbel was born at Wesselburen in Dithmarschen, Holstein, the son of a bricklayer. He was educated at the ''Gelehrtenschule des Johanneu ...

Johann Peter Hebel Johann Peter Hebel (10 May 1760 – 22 September 1826) was a German short story writer, dialectal poet, Lutheranism, Lutheran theologian and pedagogue, most famous for a collection of Alemannic German, Alemannic lyric poems (''Allemannisc ...

Johann Heermann Johann Heermann (11 October 158517 February 1647) was a German poet and hymnodist. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 26 October with Philipp Nicolai and Paul Gerhardt. Life Heermann was born in Raudten (m ...

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

Hans-Jürgen Heise Hans-Jürgen Heise (6 July 1930 - 13 November 2013) was a German author and poet. Biography Heise was born Hans-Jürgen Scheller in Bublitz, Pomerania, Weimar Germany (modern Bobolice, Poland). His family moved to Berlin when he was still an i ...

Helmut Heißenbüttel Helmut Heißenbüttel (21 June 1921 – 19 September 1996) was a German novelist and poet. Among Heißenbüttel's works are ''Das Textbuch'' (''The Textbook'') and ''Marlowe's Ende'' (''Marlowe's End''). He received the important Georg Büchner Pri ...

* Karl Friedrich Henckell *

Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder ( , ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism. Biography Born in Mohrun ...

Nikolaus Herman Nikolaus Herman (first name also ''Nicolaus'' or ''Niklas''; 1500 – 3 May 1561) was a German Lutheran cantor and teacher, creating numerous Protestant hymns. Some of them are contained in hymnals in several languages. Career Herman was born ...

Stephan Hermlin Stephan Hermlin (; 13 April 1915 – 6 April 1997), real name ''Rudolf Leder,'' was a German author. He wrote, among other things, stories, essays, translations, and lyric poetry and was one of the more well-known authors of former East Germany. ...

Georg Herwegh Georg Friedrich Rudolph Theodor Herwegh (31 May 1817 – 7 April 1875) was a German poet,Herwegh, Georg, The Columbia Encyclopedia (2008) who is considered part of the Young Germany movement. Biography He was born in Stuttgart on 31 May 1817, th ...

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include ''Demian'', ''Steppenwolf (novel), Steppenwolf'', ''Siddhartha (novel), Siddhartha'', and ''The Glass Bead Game'', ...

Georg Heym Georg Theodor Franz Artur Heym (30 October 1887 – 16 January 1912) was a German writer. He is particularly known for his poetry, representative of early Expressionism. Biography Heym was born in Hirschberg, Lower Silesia, in 1887 to He ...

Paul Heyse Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a distinguished German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the ''Tunnel über der Spree'' in Berlin and ''Die Krokodile'' in Munich, he wrote no ...

Wolfgang Hilbig Wolfgang Hilbig (31 August 1941 2 June 2007) was a German writer and poet. Life Wolfgang Hilbig was born in Meuselwitz, Germany. His grandfather had emigrated from Biłgoraj (Congress Poland, Russian Empire) before the First World War. In 194 ...

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 ...

* Sophie Hoechstetter *

Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau (baptised 25 December 1616 – 4 April 1679) was a German poet of the Baroque era. He was born and died in Breslau (Wrocław) in Silesia. During his education in Danzig (Gdańsk) and Leiden, he befrien ...

Michael Hofmann Michael Hofmann (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet who writes in English and is a translator of texts from German. Biography Hofmann was born in Freiburg into a family with a literary tradition. His father was the German novelist Ger ...

Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. Early life Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, the son of an upper-class ...

Friedrich Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Part ...

Walter Höllerer Walter Höllerer (19 December 1922 – 20 May 2003) was a German writer, literary critic, and literature academic. He was professor of literary studies at the Technical University of Berlin from 1959 to 1988. Höllerer was a member of the Grou ...

Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty (21 December 1748 – 1 September 1776) was a German poet, known especially for his ballads. Hölty was born in the Electorate of Hanover in the village of Mariensee (today part of Neustadt am Rübenberge) where h ...

Arno Holz Arno Holz (26 April 1863 – October 1929) was a German naturalist poet and dramatist. He is best known for his poetry collection ''Phantasus'' (1898). He was nominated for a Nobel prize in literature nine times. Life and Works Holz was born i ...

Peter Huchel Peter Huchel (April 3, 1903 – April 30, 1981), born Hellmut Huchel, was a German poet and editor. Life Huchel was born in Lichterfelde (now part of Berlin). From 1923 to 1926, Huchel studied literature and philosophy in Berlin, Freiburg and ...

Richard Huelsenbeck Carl Wilhelm Richard Hülsenbeck (aka Charles R. Hulbeck) (23 April 189220 April 1974) was a German writer, poet, and psychoanalyst born in Frankenau, Hessen-Nassau who was associated with the formation of the Dada movement. Life and work Huelsen ...

Norbert Hummelt Norbert Hummelt (born 30 December 1962 in Neuss) is a German poet, essayist and translator."No ...

Christian Friedrich Hunold Christian Friedrich Hunold (born 29 September 1680 in Wandersleben near Gotha (town), Gotha, died 16 August 1721 in Halle (Saale), Halle) was a German author who wrote under the pseudonym Menantes. Biography Hunold went to school in Arnstadt ...

Ulrich von Hutten Ulrich von Hutten (21 April 1488 – 29 August 1523) was a German knight, scholar, poet and satirist, who later became a follower of Martin Luther and a Protestant reformer. By 1519, he was an outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Church. Hutte ...

I

Karl Leberecht Immermann Karl Leberecht Immermann (24 April 1796 – 25 August 1840) was a German dramatist, novelist and a poet. Biography He was born at Magdeburg, the son of a government official. In 1813 he went to study law at Halle, where he remained, after t ...

Hans Irrigmann Hans Irrigmann (3 August 1735 – 13 January 1771) was a German poet writing primarily during The Enlightenment period. Very little of Irrigmann's original work has survived to the present, but his collections of sonnets, especially '' Die Wu ...

J

Johann Georg Jacobi Johann Georg Jacobi (September 2, 1740 – January 4, 1814) was a German poet. Biography The elder brother of the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Johann Georg was born at Pempelfort near Düsseldorf. He studied theology at Göttingen and ...

Ernst Jandl Ernst Jandl (; 1 August 1925 – 9 June 2000) was an Austrian writer, poet, and translator. He became known for his experimental lyric, mainly sound poems (''Sprechgedichte'') in the tradition of concrete and visual poetic forms. Poetry Inf ...

Elfriede Jelinek Elfriede Jelinek (; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors writing in German today and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voi ...

Albrecht von Johansdorf Albrecht von Johansdorf (c. 1180 – c. 1209) was a Minnesänger and a minor noble in the service of Wolfger of Erla. Documents indicate that his life included the years 1185 to 1209. He may have known Walther von der Vogelweide and is belie ...

Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir '' Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful businessman and ...

Friedrich Georg Jünger Friedrich "Fritz" Georg Jünger (1 September 1898 — 20 July 1977) was a German writer and lawyer. He wrote poetry, cultural criticism and novels. He was the younger brother of Ernst Jünger. Life and work The younger brother of Ernst Jünger, ...

K

Georg Kaiser Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, (25 November 1878 – 4 June 1945) was a German dramatist. Biography Kaiser was born in Magdeburg. He was highly prolific and wrote in a number of different styles. An Expressionist dramatist, ...

Franz Xaver Kappus Franz Xaver Kappus (17 May 1883 – 9 October 1966) was an Austrian military officer, journalist, editor and writer who wrote poetry, short-stories, novels and screenplays. Kappus is known chiefly as the military academy cadet who wrote to Austri ...

Anna Louisa Karsch Anna Louisa Karsch (1 December 1722 in Hammer, Silesia – 12 October 1791 in Berlin) was a German autodidact and poet from the Silesia region, known to her contemporaries as "Die Karschin" and "the German Sappho". She became the first German woma ...

Yaak Karsunke Yaak Karsunke (born 4 June 1934, Berlin) is a German author and actor. The son of an engineer and the procurer of a publishing house, he grew up in the borough of Pankow. In 1949 his family moved to Friedenau where he passed the Abitur in 1953 an ...

Hermann Kasack Hermann Robert Richard Eugen Kasack (24 July 1896 – 10 January 1966) was a German writer. He is best known for his novel '' Die Stadt hinter dem Strom'' (''The city beyond the river''). Kasack was a pioneer of using the medium broadcast for lit ...

Abraham Gotthelf Kästner Abraham Gotthelf Kästner (27 September 1719 – 20 June 1800) was a German mathematician and epigrammatist. He was known in his professional life for writing textbooks and compiling encyclopedias rather than for original research. Georg Chr ...

Erich Kästner Emil Erich Kästner (; 23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including '' Emil and the Detectives''. He received ...

Marie Luise Kaschnitz Marie Luise Kaschnitz (born Marie Luise von Holzing-Berslett; 31 January 1901 – 10 October 1974) was a German short story writer, novelist, essayist and poet. She is considered to be one of the leading post-war German poets. She was born in Ka ...

Gottfried Keller Gottfried Keller (19 July 1819 – 15 July 1890) was a Swiss poet and writer of German literature. Best known for his novel '' Green Henry'' (German: ''Der grüne Heinrich'') and his cycle of novellas called ''The People from Seldwyla'' (''Die Leu ...

Hans Peter Keller Hans-Peter Keller (11 March 1915 – 11 May 1988) was a German poet who authored several poem collections, e.g. ''Auch Gold rostet'' (Even Gold Rusts) or ''Panoptikum aus dem Augenwinkel'' (Panopticum seen from the corner of the eye). In the 1 ...

Justinus Kerner Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner (18 September 1786, in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany – 21 February 1862, in Weinsberg, Baden-Württemberg) was a German poet, practicing physician, and medical writer. He gave the first detailed des ...

Hermann Kesten Hermann Kesten (28 January 1900 – 3 May 1996) was a German novelist and dramatist. He was one of the principal literary figures of the New Objectivity movement in 1920s Germany. The literary prize Hermann Kesten Medal has been given in his hon ...

Gottfried Kinkel Johann Gottfried Kinkel (11 August 1815 – 13 November 1882) was a German poet also noted for his revolutionary activities and his escape from a Prussian prison in Spandau with the help of his friend Carl Schurz. Early life He was born at Ober ...

Sarah Kirsch Sarah Kirsch (; 16 April 1935 – 5 May 2013) was a German poet. Biography Sarah Kirsch was originally born Ingrid Bernstein in Limlingerode, Prussian Saxony but had changed her first name to Sarah in order to protest against her father's an ...

Wulf Kirsten Wulf Kirsten (21 June 1934 – 14 December 2022) was a German poet, novelist, and publisher. He is known for his nature poetry and his essays on the history and culture of Saxony. The son of a stonemason, Kirsten was born in Klipphausen, Meisse ...

Karin Kiwus Karin Kiwus (born 9 November 1942) is a German poet from Berlin. After studying journalism, German studies and politology she worked as an editor as well as a university teacher in Austin, Texas. She was the domestic partner of the German film d ...

Klabund Alfred Henschke (4 November 1890 – 14 August 1928), better known by his pseudonym Klabund, was a German writer. Life Klabund, born Alfred Henschke in 1890 in Crossen, was the son of an apothecary. At the age of 16 he came down with tuberculo ...

Johann Klaj Johann Klaj (Latinized Clajus) (161616 February 1656) was a German poet. He was born at Meissen in Saxony. After studying theology at University of Leipzig, Wittenberg, he went to Nuremberg as a "candidate for holy orders," and there, in conjun ...

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

Paul Alfred Kleinert Paul Alfred Kleinert is a German writer, editor and translator. Kleinert was born in Leipzig in 1960 with family roots in Silesia and Danzig. He studied theology and did theological and celtic studies in East Berlin at Humboldt Universität zu B ...

Ewald Christian von Kleist Ewald Christian von Kleist (7 March 171524 August 1759) was a German poet and cavalry officer. His vast family was well-established in Farther Pomerania; 58 male members of his family fought in Frederick the Great's army of the Seven Years' War. ...

Heinrich von Kleist Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays ''Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'', ''The Broken Jug'', ''Amphit ...

Thomas Kling Thomas Kling (June 5, 1957 – April 1, 2005) was a German poet. Life Thomas Kling was born in Bingen am Rhein, grew up in Hilden and went to school in Düsseldorf. He studied philology in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Vienna and lived in Finland for ...

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (; 2 July 1724 – 14 March 1803) was a German poet. His best known work is the epic poem ''Der Messias'' ("The Messiah"). One of his major contributions to German literature was to open it up to exploration outside ...

Christian Knorr von Rosenroth Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (15/16 July 1636 – 4 May 1689) was a German Christian Hebraist and Christian Cabalist born at Alt-Raudten (today Stara Rudna) in Silesia. After having completed his studies in the universities of Wittenberg and Lei ...

Michael Kongehl Michael Kongehl (19 March 1646 – 1 November 1710) was a German baroque poet. Life Kongehl was born in Kreuzburg to the brewer Michael Kongehl and his wife Barbara Marquart. He visited the school in Kreuzburg and Königsberg and started to s ...

August Kopisch August Kopisch (26 May 1799 – 6 February 1853) was a German poet and painter. Biography Kopisch was born on 26 May 1799 in Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland). In 1815 he began studying painting at the Prague academy, but an injury t ...

* Theodor Körner *

Theodor Kramer Theodor Kramer (1 January 1897 – 3 April 1958) was an Austrian poet of Jewish origin. He was persecuted during the Second World War and fled to the United Kingdom. After his death his significant poetic output fell into obscurity, but has been ...

* Karl Kraus *

Helmut Krausser Helmut Krausser (11 July 1964) is a German author, poet, playwright, composer and professional chess player who was born in Esslingen. Biography Krausser lives in Munich and Berlin. He married Beatrice Renauer in 1991. In 1993 he received the ...

Karl Krolow Karl Krolow (11 March 1915 – 21 June 1999) was a German poet and translator. In 1956 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize. He was born in Hanover, Germany, and died in Darmstadt, Germany. Biography Krolow came from a family of civil servants ...

* Michael Krüger *

James Krüss James Krüss (31 May 1926 – 2 August 1997) was a German writer of children's and picture books, illustrator, poet, dramatist, scriptwriter, translator, and collector of children's poems and folk songs. For his contribution as a children's writ ...

Quirinus Kuhlmann Quirinus Kuhlmann (also: Culmannus, Kühlmann, Kuhlman; February 26, 1651 – October 4, 1689) was a German Baroque poet and mystic. Kuhlmann insisted upon the importance of the events of his life as confirmation of his divine mission. Known fo ...

Günter Kunert Günter Kunert (; 6 March 1929 – 21 September 2019) was a German writer. Based in East Berlin, he published poetry from 1947, supported by Bertold Brecht. After he had signed a petition against the deprivation of the citizenship of Wolf Biermann ...

Reiner Kunze Reiner Kunze (born 16 August 1933 in Oelsnitz, Erzgebirge, Saxony) is a German writer and GDR dissident. He studied media and journalism at the University of Leipzig. In 1968, he left the GDR state party SED following the communist Warsaw Pact ...

Der von Kürenberg Der von Kürenberg or Der Kürenberger (fl. mid-12th century) was a Middle High German poet and one of the earliest Minnesänger. Fifteen strophes of his songs are preserved in the Codex Manesse and the Budapest Fragment. Life Since his given name ...

L

Else Lasker-Schüler Else Lasker-Schüler (née Elisabeth Schüler) (; 11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German-Jewish poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin and her poetry. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressi ...

Christine Lavant Christine Lavant (born Christine Thonhauser, mar. Christine Habernig; 4 July 1915 – 7 June 1973) was an Austrian poet and novelist. Life Lavant was born in the hamlet of Großedling (today part of Wolfsberg) in the Lavant Valley, Carin ...

Hans Leip Hans Leip (22 September 1893 – 6 June 1983), was a German novelist, poet and playwright, best remembered as the lyricist of Lili Marleen. Leip was the son of a former sailor and harbour-worker at the port of Hamburg. He was educated there, ...

Anton G. Leitner Anton G. Leitner (born 16 June 1961) is a German writer and publisher. He has also gained a widespread reputation as an editor, reciter, and organizer of literary events. Since 1980, Leitner edited over 40 anthologies for major publishers in the ...

Nikolaus Lenau Nikolaus Lenau was the pen name of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau (13 August 1802 – 22 August 1850), a German-language Austrian poet. Biography He was born at Csatád (Schadat), Kingdom of Hungary, now Lenauheim, Banat, then p ...

Michael Lentz Michael Lentz (born 1964) is a German author, musician, and performer of experimental texts and sound poetry. Life Lentz was born in Düren. His father (1927–2014) was city manager () of Düren. Lentz completed his ''Abitur'' at the in 1983 ...

Hermann Lenz Hermann Karl Lenz (26 February 1913 – 12 May 1998) was a German writer of poetry, stories, and novels. A major part of his work is a series of nine semi-autobiographical novels centring on his alter ego "Eugen Rapp", a cycle that is also known ...

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (23 January 1751, or 12 January in the Julian calendar – 4 June 1792, or 24 May in the Julian calendar) was a Baltic German writer of the ''Sturm und Drang'' movement. Life Lenz was born in Sesswegen (Cesvaine), ...

Rudolf Leonhard Rudolf Leonhard (27 October 1889, in Lissa, German Empire (today Leszno, Poland) – 19 December 1953, in East Berlin) was a German author and communist activist. Life Leonhard came from a family of lawyers and studied law and Philology in Berlin ...

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developmen ...

Heinrich Leuthold Heinrich Leuthold (9 August 1827–1 July 1879) was a Swiss poet and translator, described by one critic as the writer "most endowed with genius" of the Munich literary circle, ''Die Krokodile''.John George Robertson, Edna Purdie. ''A history ...

Thorsten Libotte Thorsten Libotte (born 20 July 1972 in Bonn) is a German writer and poet. Life and career Thorsten Libotte was born 1972 in Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia). After graduating from high school and subsequent military duty he began his biology studi ...

* Alfred Lichtenstein *

Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer (30 January 1719, in Wurzen – 7 July 1783, in Halberstadt) was a German fabulist. Biography His father of the same name was a jurist. The younger Lichtwer studied law at Leipzig and Wittenberg. His chief work is to ...

Ulrich von Liechtenstein Ulrich von Liechtenstein (ca. 1200 – 26 January 1275) was a German minnesinger and poet of the Middle Ages. He wrote poetry in Middle High German and was author of noted works about how knights and nobles may lead more virtuous lives. Ulrich was ...

Detlev von Liliencron Baron Detlev von Liliencron born Friedrich Adolf Axel Detlev Liliencron Britannic ...

Till Lindemann Till Lindemann (; born 4 January 1963) is a German singer, songwriter and poet. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein and solo project Lindemann. Rammstein has sold over 25 million records w ...

Hermann Lingg Hermann (Ritter von) Lingg (22 January 1820 – 18 June 1905) was a German poet who also wrote plays and short stories. His cousin, Maximilian von Lingg, was Bishop of Augsburg. He was born in Lindau. Lingg studied medicine at the universities of ...

Angela Litschev Angela Litschev (also known as Angela Litschewa, Bulgarian Ангела Личева; born 17 July 1978) is a Bulgarian-born German writer and poet. Life and career Angela Litschev was born 1978 in Sofia as the only daughter of Alexander Litsc ...

Otto Heinrich von Loeben Ferdinand August Otto Heinrich, Graf von Loeben (18 August 1786 in Dresden – 3 April 1825 in Dresden) was a German writer. Biography He was born into an aristocratic Protestant family, and was educated by private tutors. From 1804 he studied law ...

Friedrich von Logau Friedrich von Logau (January 1605 – 24 July 1655) was a German poet and epigrammatist of the Baroque era. Life He was born the son of Georg von Logau, estate owner in Brockut near Nimptsch in Silesia (present-day Niemcza, Poland). His fathe ...

Hermann Löns Hermann Löns (29 August 1866 – 26 September 1914) was a German journalist and writer. He is most famous as "The Poet of the Heath" for his novels and poems celebrating the people and landscape of the North German moors, particularly the L ...

* Iwar von Lücken *

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

M

Andreas Mand Andreas Mand (born 14 December 1959) is a German contemporary author of novels, short stories and essays and a playwright. He is one of the representatives of the German Popular literature, and in addition a stay-at-home dad, because he wanted t ...

Itzik Manger Itzik Manger (30 May 1901, Czernowitz, then Austrian-Hungarian Empire – 21 February 1969, Gedera, Israel; yi, איציק מאַנגער) was a prominent Yiddish language, Yiddish poet and playwright, a self-proclaimed folk bard, visionary, a ...

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German author known for his Social criticism, socio-political novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the ...

* Uwe Martens *

Kurt Marti Kurt Marti (31 January 1921 – Bern, 11 February 2017) was a Swiss theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in uni ...

Friedrich von Matthisson Friedrich von Matthisson (23 January 1761 – 12 March 1831) was a German poet, an early member of the German Romantic movement. His best known poem is probably ''Adelaide'', which was set to music by Beethoven. Biography He was born at Hohendod ...

Georg Maurer Georg Maurer (11 March 1907 – 4 August 1971) was a German poet, essayist, and translator. He wrote under the pseudonyms ''Juventus, murus,'' and ''Johann Weilau''. The son of a teacher, he was born in Szászrégen, Austria-Hungary (now in Roman ...

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...

Karl Mayer Karl Mayer is a fictional character portrayed by Richard Burgi and created by television producer and screenwriter Marc Cherry for the ABC television series ''Desperate Housewives''. He is the ex-husband of housewife Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) an ...

Friederike Mayröcker Friederike Mayröcker (20 December 1924 – 4 June 2021) was an Austrian writer of poetry and prose, audio plays, children's books and dramatic texts. She experimented with language, and was regarded as an avantgarde poet, and as one of the lea ...

Christoph Meckel Christoph Meckel (12 June 1935 – 29 January 2020) was a German author and graphic artist. He received awards for his works which connect illustrations with the written text, sometimes texts by others. Life Born in Berlin, Meckel spent his yo ...

Walter Mehring Walter Mehring (29 April 1896 – 3 October 1981) was a German author and one of the most prominent satirical authors in the Weimar Republic. He was banned during the Third Reich, and fled the country. Early life He was the son of the trans ...

Ernst Meister Ernst Meister (3 September 1911 – 15 June 1979) was a German poet and writer. Meister's poetry falls within a dark abstract landscape of existentialism, with tortured themes influenced by his experiences during World War II. In his 1976 coll ...

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (11 October 1825 – 28 November 1898) was a Swiss poet and historical novelist, a master of literary realism who is mainly remembered for stirring narrative ballads like "Die Füße im Feuer" (The Feet in the Fire). Biogr ...

Johann Martin Miller Johann Martin Miller (3 December 1750 in Ulm – 21 June 1814 in Ulm) was a German theologian and writer. He is best known for his novel ''Siegwart'', which became one of the most successful books at the time. Life Miller, the son of the Ev ...

Alfred Mombert Alfred Mombert (6 February 1872, in Karlsruhe – 8 April 1942, in Winterthur) was a Germans, German poet. Biography Mombert was the son of the Jewish-German merchant Eduard Mombert and his wife Helene Gombertz. The economist Paul Mombe ...

Christian Morgenstern Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern (6 May 1871 – 31 March 1914) was a German author and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin ...

Eduard Mörike Eduard Friedrich Mörike (8 September 18044 June 1875) was a German Lutheran pastor who was also a Romantic poet and writer of novellas and novels. Many of his poems were set to music and became established folk songs, while others were used by ...

Heinrich von Morungen Heinrich von Morungen or Henry of Morungen (died c. 1220 or 1222) was a German Minnesinger. Life Almost nothing about his life can be deduced from Heinrich's songs. Possibly he is identical with the ''Hendricus de Morungen'' who is documented in T ...

Johann Michael Moscherosch Johann Michael Moscherosch (7 March 1601 – 4 April 1669), German statesman, satirist, and educator, was born at Willstätt, on the Upper Rhine near Strassburg. His bitterly brilliant but partisan writings graphically describe life in a Ge ...

Erich Mühsam Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 – 10 July 1934) was a German-Jewish antimilitarist anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic, for which ...

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...

* Inge Müller *

Wilhelm Müller Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller (7 October 1794 – 30 September 1827) was a German lyric poet, best known as the author of ''Die schöne Müllerin'' (1823) and ''Winterreise'' (1828), which Franz Schubert later set to music as song cycles. Life ...

* Börries Freiherr von Münchhausen

N

Joachim Neander Joachim Neander (165031 May 1680) was a German Reformed (Calvinist) Church teacher, theologian and hymnwriter whose most famous hymn, '' Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation'' (german: Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König d ...

Johann Nestroy Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (; 7 December 1801 – 25 May 1862) was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath. He participated in the 1848 revolutions an ...

Georg Neumark Georg Neumark (16 March 1621 – 8 July 1681) was a German poet and composer of hymns. Life Neumark was born in Langensalza, the son of Michael Neumark and his wife Martha. From 1630 he attended the gymnasium in Schleusingen and later transfer ...

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

Philipp Nicolai Philipp Nicolai (10 August 1556 – 26 October 1608) was a German Lutheran pastor, poet, and composer. He is most widely recognized as a hymnodist. Biography Philipp Nicolai was born at Mengeringhausen in Waldeck, Hesse, Germany where his fat ...

* Helga M. Novak *

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...

(Friedrich von Hardenberg)

O

Andreas Okopenko Andreas Okopenko (15 March 1930, Košice – 27 June 2010, Vienna) was an Austrian writer. Andreas Okopenko's father was a Ukrainian physician and his mother was Austrian. From 1939, the family lived in Vienna. After studying chemistry at the ...

Martin Opitz Martin Opitz von Boberfeld (23 December 1597 – 20 August 1639) was a German poet, regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime. Biography Opitz was born in Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) in Lower Silesia, in the Principality of ...

Ernst Ortlepp Ernst Ortlepp (August 1, 1800 - June 14, 1864) was a German poet. Ortlepp was born in Droyßig near Zeitz as the son of a Lutheran priest. He went to school in Pforta until he was 19 years old and then studied theology and philosophy in Leipzig. ...

P

* Bert Papenfuß *

Oskar Pastior Oskar Pastior (; 20 October 1927 – 4 October 2006) was a Romanian-born German poet and translator. He was the only German member of Oulipo. Biography Born into a Transylvanian Saxons, Transylvanian Saxon family in Sibiu (Hermannstadt), he Depor ...

Ludwig Pfau Karl Ludwig Pfau (; August 25, 1821 – April 12, 1894) was a German poet, journalist, and revolutionary. He was born in Heilbronn and died, aged 72, in Stuttgart. Poetry Some of Ludwig Pfau's poetry has been used in the composition of ''Lied ...

Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel (28 June 1736 – 1 May 1809) was a French-German writer and translator from the Pfeffel family. His texts were put to music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert. He is sometimes also known as Amédée ...

Heinz Piontek Heinz Piontek (15 November 1925 – 26 October 2003) was a German writer. He was born in Upper Silesia. In 1976, he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung for his literary oeuvre with the words "ei ...

August von Platen-Hallermünde Karl August Georg Maximilian Graf von Platen-Hallermünde (24 October 17965 December 1835) was a German poet and dramatist. In German he mostly is called ''Graf'' (Count) Platen. Biography August von Platen was born on 24 October 1796 at Ansbach ...

Johannes Plavius Johannes Plavius (born c. 1600) was a German poet that most likely was born in Central German Thuringia, in Neuhausen (as he calls himself "M. Johannes Plavius Nehusâ Thüringus" in some works) or Plauen (Latinized to ''Plavia''), from which his ...

Steffen Popp Steffen Popp (born in Greifswald, 18 July 1978) is a German poet, novelist and literary translator. He has translated Ben Lerner and other American poets. Awards * 2003: Preisträger der Akademie Graz * 2004: Kranichsteiner Literaturpreis * 20 ...

Robert Prutz Robert Eduard Prutz (30 May 1816 – 21 June 1872) was a German poet and prose writer. He was born at Stettin, modern day Szczecin. He studied philology, philosophy and history at Berlin, Breslau, and Halle, and in the last-named became associat ...

R

Wilhelm Raabe Wilhelm Raabe (; September 8, 1831November 15, 1910) was a German novelist. His early works were published under the pseudonym of Jakob Corvinus. Biography He was born in Eschershausen (then in the Duchy of Brunswick, now in the Holzminden Distr ...

Ferdinand Raimund Ferdinand Raimund (born Ferdinand Jakob Raimann; 1 June 1790 – 5 September 1836, Pottenstein, Lower Austria) was an Austrian actor and dramatist. Life and work He was born in Vienna as a son of Bohemian woodturning master craftsman Jako ...

Karl Wilhelm Ramler Karl Wilhelm Ramler (25 February 1725 – 11 April 1798) was a German poet, Berlin Cadet School master. Ramler was born in Kolberg. After graduating from the University of Halle, he went to Berlin, where, in 1748, he was appointed professo ...

Lutz Rathenow Lutz Rathenow (born 22 September 1952 in Jena) is a dissident German writer and poet who was haunted by the Secret Police until the German reunification. From then on, his fortunes changed, and he received several literary honors and awards. L ...

Jacob Regnart Jacob Regnart (French: ''Jacques Regnart''; 1540s – 16 October 1599) was a Flemish Renaissance composer. He spent most of his career in Austria and Bohemia, where he wrote both sacred and secular music. Biography Regnart was born at Douai, one ...

Robert Reinick Robert Reinick (22 February 1805 – 7 February 1852) was a German painter and poet, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. One of his poems, ''Dem Vaterland'', was set to music by Hugo Wolf and another, ''The Flight into Egyp ...

Neidhart von Reuental Neidhart (Middle High German ) (later often called Neidhart von Reuental) was one of the most famous . With around 1500 documented strophes of his songs surviving, Neidhart has the largest corpus of surviving lyrics of any , suggesting the great ...

Fritz Reuter Fritz Reuter (7 November 1810 – 12 July 1874; born as ''Heinrich Ludwig Christian Friedrich Reuter'') was a novelist from Northern Germany who was a prominent contributor to Low German literature. Early life Fritz Reuter was born at Stavenha ...

* Karl Riha *

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

Joachim Ringelnatz Joachim Ringelnatz is the pen name of the German author and painter Hans Bötticher (7 August 1883, Wurzen, Saxony – 17 November 1934, Berlin). His pen name ''Ringelnatz'' is usually explained as a dialect expression for an animal, possibly a ...

Johann Rist Johann Rist (8 March 1607 – 31 August 1667) was a German poet and dramatist best known for his hymns, which inspired musical settings and have remained in hymnals. Life Rist was born at Ottensen in Holstein-Pinneberg (today Hamburg) on 8 Marc ...

Eugen Roth Eugen Roth (January 24, 1895 – April 28, 1976) was a Bavarian poet who wrote mostly humorous verse. Roth was born in Munich, the son of the well-known Munich writer Hermann Roth. He volunteered for service in the First World War and was sev ...

Ralf Rothmann Ralf Rothmann (born May 10, 1953 in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein) is a German novelist, poet, and dramatist. His novels have been translated into several languages with Knife Edge (''Messers Schneide'') and Young Light (''Junges Licht'') being t ...

Friedrich Rückert Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Biography Rückert was born in Schweinfurt and was the eldest son of a lawyer. He was educated at the local '' Gymnasium'' ...

Gerhard Rühm Gerhard Rühm (born 12 February 1930 in Vienna) is an Austrian author, composer and visual artist. Biography Rühm studied the piano and music composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Following his studies he unde ...

Peter Rühmkorf Peter Rühmkorf (25 October 1929 – 8 June 2008) was a German writer who significantly influenced German post-war literature. Rühmkorf's literary career started in 1952 in Hamburg with the magazine ''Zwischen den Kriegen'' ("Between the Wars"), ...

S

Hans Sachs Hans Sachs (5 November 1494 – 19 January 1576) was a German ''Meistersinger'' ("mastersinger"), poet, playwright, and shoemaker. Biography Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg (). As a child he attended a singing school that was held in the churc ...

Nelly Sachs Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German-Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of he ...

* Alexios Schandermani (born 1953) *

Johannes Scheffler Angelus Silesius (9 July 1677), born Johann Scheffler and also known as Johann Angelus Silesius, was a German Catholic priest and physician, known as a mystic and religious poet. Born and raised a Lutheran, he adopted the name ''Angelus'' (Lati ...

, named

Angelus Silesius Angelus Silesius (9 July 1677), born Johann Scheffler and also known as Johann Angelus Silesius, was a German Catholic priest and physician, known as a mystic and religious poet. Born and raised a Lutheran, he adopted the name ''Angelus'' (Lati ...

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

Sibylla Schwarz Sibylla Schwarz, also known as Sibylle Schwartz (14/24 February 1621 in Greifswald – 31 July/10 August 1638 in Greifswald) was a German poet of the Baroque era. Life Sibylla Schwarz was the daughter of Christian Schwarz (1581-1648), mayor of ...

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, pain ...

Moriz Seeler Moriz Seeler (1 March 1896 – ''after'' 15 August 1942) was a German poet, writer, film producer, and man of the theatre. He was murdered in the Holocaust. Early life Seeler was born in the small, provincial town of Greifenberg in Pomerania, Ge ...

Lutz Seiler Lutz Seiler (born 8 June 1963 in Gera, Thuringia) is a German poet and novelist. Life and work Lutz Seiler grew up in the Langenberg district of Gera, Thuringia (former East Germany). After training as a skilled building construction worker, h ...

Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg (7 November 1750 – 5 December 1819), was a German lawyer, and translator born at Bramstedt in Holstein (then a part of Denmark). He was also a poet of the ''Sturm und Drang'' and early Romantic p ...

Moritz von Strachwitz Moritz Karl Wilhelm Anton Graf von Strachwitz (13 March 182211 December 1847) was a German lyric poet. Strachwitz was born in Peterwitz, Silesia (today Stoszowice Poland). After studying in Breslau and Berlin he settled on his estate in Moravia ...

Gottfried von Strassburg Gottfried von Strassburg (died c. 1210) is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance ', an adaptation of the 12th-century ''Tristan and Iseult'' legend. Gottfried's work is regarded, alongside the ''Nibelungenlied'' and Wolfram von Esc ...

Botho Strauss Botho Strauß (; born 2 December 1944) is a German playwright, novelist and essayist. Biography Botho Strauß's father was a chemist. After finishing his secondary education, Strauß studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Colo ...

Der Stricker Der Stricker is the pseudonym of a 13th-century Middle High German itinerant poet whose real name has been lost to history. His name, which means "The Knitter," may indicate he was a commoner; he was likely from Franconia but later worked in Austria ...

T

Georg Thurmair Georg Thurmair (7 February 1909 – 20 January 1984) was a German poet who wrote around 300 hymns, a writer, journalist and author of documentary films. Career Born in Munich, he took commercial training and worked from 1926 as a secretary at the ...

Maria Luise Thurmair Maria Luise Thurmair née Mumelter (27 September 1912 – 24 October 2005) was a German Catholic theologian, hymnodist and writer. She contributed the lyrics of many hymns when the Catholic hymnal ''Gotteslob'' was first published in 1975. Care ...

Ludwig Tieck Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early life Tieck was born in Be ...

Georg Trakl Georg Trakl (3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. He is perhaps best known for his poem " Grodek", which he wr ...

Hugo von Trimberg Hugo von Trimberg (born circa 1230/1235 in Wern(a), now either Ober- or Niederwerrn near Schweinfurt Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding dist ...

Süßkind von Trimberg 230px, ''Süßkind, der Jude von Trimberg'' (Süsskind, the Jew of Trimberg), portrait from the ''Codex Manesse''. Süßkind von Trimberg (or Suesskind of Trimberg) is given as the author of six poems in the ''Codex Manesse''. The poems date to the ...

Kurt Tucholsky Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Tucholsky was on ...

Ulrich von Türheim Ulrich von Türheim (c. 1195 – c. 1250) was a German writer from the Augsburg area writing during the first half of the 13th century. Three of his works have survived: a conclusion to the version of the Tristan legend left unfinished by Gottfried ...

Heinrich von dem Türlin Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...

U

Ludwig Uhland Johann Ludwig Uhland (26 April 1787 – 13 November 1862) was a German poet, philologist and literary historian. Biography He was born in Tübingen, Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, but also took an interest i ...

Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Anthony Ulrich (German: ''Anton Ulrich''; 4 October 1633 – 27 March 1714), a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, ...

V

Hendrik van Veldeke Heinrich von Veldeke (aka: , Dutch language, Dutch Hendrik van Veldeke, born before or around 1150 – died after 1184) is the first writer in the Low Countries known by name who wrote in a European language other than Latin. He was born in Velde ...

Walther von der Vogelweide Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170c. 1230) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs (" Sprüche") in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundr ...

Johann Heinrich Voß Johann Heinrich Voss (german: Johann Heinrich Voß, ; 20 February 1751 – 29 March 1826) was a German classicist and poet, known mostly for his translation of Homer's ''Odyssey'' (1781) and ''Iliad'' (1793) into German. Life Voss was born at ...

W

* Robert Walser *

Erich Weinert Erich Bernhard Gustav Weinert (4 August 1890 in Magdeburg – 20 April 1953 in East Berlin) was a German Communist writer and a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Early life Weinert was born in 1890 in Magdeburg to a family supp ...

Oswald von Wolkenstein Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376 or 1377 in Pfalzen – August 2, 1445, in Meran) was a poet, composer and diplomat. In his diplomatic capacity, he traveled through much of Europe to as far as Georgia (as recounted in "Durch Barbarei, Arabia"). He wa ...

Konrad von Würzburg Konrad von Würzburg (c.1220-1230 – 31 August 1287) was the chief German poet of the second half of the 13th century. As with most epic poets of the age, little is known of his life, and his origin is disputed. There have been German s ...

Christa Wolf Christa Wolf (; née Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist.
Barbara Gard ...

Z

Ulrich von Zatzikhoven Ulrich von Zatzikhoven was the author of the Middle High German Arthurian romance ''Lanzelet''. Ulrich's name and his place of origin (''Zezikon'' in Switzerland) are only known definitively from the work itself. However, it is generally accepted ...

External links

Projekt Gutenberg-DE: all authorsList of authorsGerman Poetry
{{Lists of poets

*Poets

Poets A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Z

See also

External links