Poet. After his father was murdered by the Gestapo he and his mother fled to London and also helped more than 70 people to make their escape from Nazi-Germany. He published several poetry books, one novel and did a lot of translation work. He translated almost the whole of Shakespeare's works and he was the first to translate Sylvia Plath's works into German. After the war he worked at various newly founded English magazines and also at the BBC where he was in charge of German speaking programmes. He also took a public political stance which he was always criticised for and which was reflected in his poetry. Only in his later years he was recognised for his merits and was awarded several litery prizes e. g. the "Georg-Buechner-Preis", the "Bremer Literaturpreis" and the "Oesterreichische Staatspreis". He died after a long and severe illness and was buried in London. The poem on his headstone reads as follows: "Vielleicht Gedichte die viel zerstoerbarer sind als Stein werden vielleicht mein Haus aus Stein ueberdauern." The English translation on the back of the stone: "Poems that are much frailer than stone will perhaps outlast my house of stone."
Poet. After his father was murdered by the Gestapo he and his mother fled to London and also helped more than 70 people to make their escape from Nazi-Germany. He published several poetry books, one novel and did a lot of translation work. He translated almost the whole of Shakespeare's works and he was the first to translate Sylvia Plath's works into German. After the war he worked at various newly founded English magazines and also at the BBC where he was in charge of German speaking programmes. He also took a public political stance which he was always criticised for and which was reflected in his poetry. Only in his later years he was recognised for his merits and was awarded several litery prizes e. g. the "Georg-Buechner-Preis", the "Bremer Literaturpreis" and the "Oesterreichische Staatspreis". He died after a long and severe illness and was buried in London. The poem on his headstone reads as follows: "Vielleicht Gedichte die viel zerstoerbarer sind als Stein werden vielleicht mein Haus aus Stein ueberdauern." The English translation on the back of the stone: "Poems that are much frailer than stone will perhaps outlast my house of stone."
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
