Stefan George (July 12, 1868 – December 4, 1933) was a German poet and translator.

Biography

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George was born in Bingen, Rhineland-Palatinate. His writing first became of note in the 1890s. George founded an important literary magazine called Blätter für die Kunst, around which a literary circle came to gather. As the Nazi regime realized it could gain popularity by claiming George as a Nazi poet, he left Germany and emigrated to Switzerland. George himself shunned such an association, and he died in Locarno. The Nazis made George a national poet after his death.

Work

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George's poetry was categorised by an aristocratic and remote ethos; his verse was formal in style, lyrical in tone, and often arcane in language, being influenced by Greek classical forms, in revolt against the realist trend in German literature at the time. Believing that the purpose of poetry was distance from the world - he was a strong advocate of art for art's sake, and was influenced by Nietzsche—George's writing had many ties with the French Symbolist movement. He was in contact with many of its representatives, including Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine.

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