Gottfried BennGottfried Benn was born on 2 May 1886 in Mansfeld (a village in Westpriegnitz, North Germany). He went to Marburg University to study philology and theology, but after two years changed to the study of military medicine at the KaiserWilhelm-Akademie in Berlin. His first small collection of poems, Morgue and Other Poems, was published as a pamphlet in Berlin in 1912 and created a sensation: Benn became known as a leading figure in the new movement called literary Expressionism. During the First World War he worked as an army doctor in a hospital in Brussels. In 1917 he was discharged and returned to Berlin, where he opened the private practice for skin and venereal diseases which was his often meagre source of income for most of the rest of his working life. In 1932 he was elected to membership of the Literary Section of the Prussian Academy of Arts, and remained in place after the Nazis’ rise to power. Although he never joined the NSDAP, his prose writings from the period incorporate Nazi terminology and support elements of Nazi ideology. He rejoined the army in 1935, but was attacked by the SS as an exponent of 'degenerate' Expressionist art and forbidden to publish while still a serving soldier. After the war Benn began to publish new work and his reputation as a poet rose quickly in West Germany. He died in July 1956. Read More Read Less