Ernst Toller

Rhys W. Williams (Swansea University)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

Born 1 Dec 1893
Died 22 May 1939
Activity 1913-1939

Places

Born in Germany
Active in Germany; United States

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist

Resources

Toller's Works

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An innovative playwright and poet, a socialist revolutionary and politician, a government member in the ill-fated 1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic (

Räterepublik

), a political prisoner and an exiled German Jew, Ernst Toller's own biography – with the exception of its tragic ending – almost reads like fiction. Toller's life was, indeed, later fictionalized in the eponymous play published by Tankred Dorst (1925-) in 1968. In several of its stations and facets, however, Toller's life is also representative for the experiences shared by many of his contemporaries: a generation of writers and intellectuals traumatized by war, persecuted and ultimately expatriated by the National Socialists. Today Toller remains best known for his plays. His works have found their way into the canon of…

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1403 words

Citation: Williams, Rhys W.. "Ernst Toller". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 September 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5463, accessed 21 November 2024.]