Background
George was born on July 12, 1868, in Büdesheim (now part of Bitburg-Prüm) in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (now part of Rhineland-Palatinate).
George was born on July 12, 1868, in Büdesheim (now part of Bitburg-Prüm) in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (now part of Rhineland-Palatinate).
He attended grammar school at Darmstadt, and studied later at Paris, Munich, and Berlin and traveled widely on the Continent and in England.
When George entered upon his career as a poet in the late 1880's, he found himself in opposition to the political and cultural trends of his time.
He founded and edited Blätter für die Kunst (1892-1919; Periodical for Art), the mouthpiece for the distinguished George circle of esthetes.
This intellectual élite included not only poets and critics such as Friedrich Gundolf, Ernst Bertram, Max Kommerell, Karl Wolfskehl, and Norbert von Hellingrath but also men of action like Count Claus von Stauffenberg. George's life may be divided conveniently into five major creative periods.
It was followed by Pilgerfahrten (1891) and Algabal (1892).
Only at the turn of the century, when the Berlin publisher Georg Bondi brought out a one-volume edition of Hymnen, Pilgerfahrten, and Algabal, did his books begin to appear through regular trade channels.
His contemporaries, however, considered his poetry exclusive and artistocratic and marked by the flaws of fin-de-siècle literature.
He deals explicitly with the problems of his age in a collection of poetry, Das neue Reich (1928; The New Reich).
Certain scholars, among them Friedrich Gundolf (Goethe, 1916), E. Bertram (Nietzsche, 1918), and E. Kantorowicz (Kaiser Friedrich II, 1927), were influenced by George's philosophy, particularly its reverent attitude toward human greatness and creativity.
(Book of Poetry of a famous German Poet where the poems ar...)
1946George declined the honors which the National Socialist regime wanted to bestow upon him, and died in self-imposed exile.
His poetry emphasized self-sacrifice, heroism, and power, and he thus gained popularity in National Socialist circles.