Ernst Stadler — a remark

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“Taking sides always offers security, reassurance, support. But those who suffer most deeply are those who stand amid the struggle, whose more sensitive conscience cannot take sides unconditionally.”

Original: Partei ist immer Sicherung, Beruhigung, Rückhalt. Aber die am tiefsten Leidenden sind diejenigen, die inmitten des Kampfes stehen, und deren sensibleres Gewissen es doch nicht vermag, bedinglos Partei zu nehmen. — Captures the moral difficulty of belonging in a region divided between competing national identities · Review concerning Hans Karl Abel's Die Elsässische Tragödie, 1911 (German)

Ernst Stadler

About Ernst Stadler

Ernst Stadler

11 August 1883–30 October 1914

Ernst Stadler was born on 11 August 1883 in Colmar, in Alsace, and was killed on 30 October 1914 near Zandvoorde in Flanders during the First World War. His life lasted little more than thirty-one years, and the body of poetry on which his reputation rests is correspondingly small. Yet his importance in…

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More remarks by Ernst Stadler

“Or do I merely see things differently because I lack this kind of bravado, and can imagine and wish for another task in life than to let a shell tear me to pieces.”

Original: Oder sehe ich nur die Dinge anders, weil mir diese Art der Bravour abgeht und ich mir schließlich noch eine andere Aufgabe im Leben denke und wünsche, als mich von einer Granate in Stücke reißen zu lassen. — A stark statement of his desire for a life and purpose beyond warfare · Letter to Thea Sternheim from the front, early October 1914 (German)

“To keep fixing the French spirit to a few catchwords such as rationalism, clarity, logic and measure is to hound a principle to death through lazy generalisation merely because it suited certain periods and individuals.”

Original: Den französischen Geist immer wieder auf ein paar Schlagworte wie Rationalismus, Klarheit, Logik, Maass festlegen wollen, heisst ein Prinzip, weil es auf gewisse Epochen und Individualitäten passte, durch träge Verallgemeinerung zu Tode hetzen. — Warns against reducing a culture to convenient stereotypes · Essay, Die neue französische Lyrik, 1912 (German)

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