Georg Heym was one of the great early figures of German Expressionism, who died aged 24. Nevertheless, his poetry highlights objectivity, a distant contemplation of visions and large-scale paintings, often terrible, written in large strokes.
Background
Heym was born October 30, 1887, in Hirschberg, Lower Silesia (now Jelenia Gora, Poland) to Hermann and Jenny Heym.
His parents, members of the Wilhemine middle class, had trouble comprehending their son's rebellious behavior. Heym's own attitude towards his parents was paradoxical; on the one hand he held a deep affection for them, but on the other, he strongly resisted any attempts to suppress his individuality and autonomy.
Education
In 1900 the Heyms moved to Berlin, and there Georg began unsuccessfully attending a series of different schools. Eventually, he arrived at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium at Neuruppin in Brandenburg. Later, he graduated and went to study law at Würzburg.
Career
At Würzburg Georg Heym started writing plays. However, publishers largely ignored his work.
In 1910 Heym met the poet and writer Simon Guttmann, who invited Heym to join the recently founded Der Neue Club, a descendant of a student society at the University of Berlin. Other members of this Club included Kurt Hiller, Jakob van Hoddis, and Erwin Loewenson (also known as Golo Gangi); often visiting were Else Lasker-Schüler, Gottfried Benn, and Karl Kraus. Although the Club had no actual stated objective, its members all shared a sense of rebellion against contemporary culture and possessed a desire for political and aesthetic upheaval. The Club held "Neopathetisches Cabaret" meetings in which members presented work, and it was here that Heym first gained notice. His poetry immediately attracted praise. In January 1911, Ernst Rowohlt published Heym's first book and the only one to appear in his lifetime: Der ewige Tag (The Eternal Day).
Heym later went through several judicial jobs, none of which he held for long due to his lack of respect for authority.
On 16 January 1912, Heym and his friend Ernst Balcke went on a skating trip to the frozen river Havel. He died during the trip.
Views
Heym, like other expressionists, believed that technical progress is a monster devouring the human soul, it will first destroy nature, and then humanity. He was terrified by gigantic cities and ports. In the perception of the poet, they personified everything contrary to the "vital impulse." His apocalyptic poems, dominated by expression, brought to a naturalistic absurdity, contrasted sharply with the landscape and love verses that reigned supreme then.