Erich Kastner as a Representative of "Neue Sachlichkeit"

Abstract

But there is a new group of young poets. They do not attempt to set an example to their time, as does Stefan George, and they do not live as strangers in the world of to-day as did Hofmannsthal and Rilke. These young men mean to translate the spirit of postwar Germany into verse or prose, not seeking passionately cosmic meaning behind realities, but always in a matter of fact way: neue Sachlichkeit. They wander, as Erich Kaistner puts it, through the gardens of dead sentiment and plant them with jokes. But they are not cynics. Poetry, they hold, ought to be of use to the public, and they give us accordingly what they term Gebrauchslyrik. Outstanding among them is Erich Kiistner. He published in 1928 a collection of poems Herz auf Taille, 1 in 1929 L irm im Spiegel,2 and in 1930 Ein Mann gibt Auskunft.1 In 1930, also, a for children appeared, Emil und die Detektive, 4 and in 1931 a children's book Das verhexte Telefon,' and a novel for adults, Fabian, die Geschichte eines Moralisten. 5 His three volumes of poems are eminently readable, and they are read. It would be a mistake to class them as purely realistic though they bear outwardly the marks of realism,-they stop at nothing, however sordid it may be. But the poet has a lightness of touch that causes Soergl 8 to compare him to Heine. He voices, for