Ernst Toller

Rhys W. Williams (Swansea University)
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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 …

1403 words

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

5463 Ernst Toller 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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