Dehmel, Richard (EN)

Dehmel Richard, *18 November 1863 Wendisch-Hermsdorf (Brandenburg), †18 February 1920 Blankenese (near Hamburg), German poet. An outstanding representative of German modernist poetry, he underwent a creative evolution from naturalism to expressionism. Initially, he addressed social issues (e.g., Der Arbeitsmann), but later, influenced by the philosophy of F. Nietzsche, he wrote symbolic, reflective poems with deep philosophical and psychological content, dominated by panerotic themes (collections: Erlösungen 1891, Aber die Liebe 1893, Weib und Welt 1896, Zwei Menschen 1903, Verwandlungen der Venus 1907). Dehmel often used free rhythm and unrhymed verse. He greatly enriched the German poetic language both conceptually (symbolism) and phonetically (emphasizing the sound qualities of speech); “Dehmel created a syntax that was completely in keeping with the spirit of the language (…) with such a lavish richness of melody and such a vast range of rhythm that the German language had never resounded with before” (S. Przybyszewski, Moi współcześni [My Contemporaries]). He had a gift for recitation; Dehmel’s contemporaries were delighted with his recitation of Verlaine’s poems in his own German translation. He was distinguished by his great musical sensitivity; “I have rarely seen a man who loved music as maniacally, as fanatically as Dehmel,” recalls Przybyszewski (Moi współcześni). In the 1890s, when his leading collections of poetry were written, Dehmel moved in circles of eminent artists (E. Munch, A. Strindberg, O. Hansson, and others). He held the poetry by Kasprowicz in high regard, but he is primarily remembered in the history of Polish literature as a friend of Przybyszewski, with whom he shared a devotion to Nietzsche and Chopin: “Chopin’s music forged between us the strong, unbreakable bonds of a passionate and loyal friendship” (Moi współcześni). This friendship, forged in the circle of Berlin’s modernist bohemia (the so-called Junges Deutschland), developed intensively in the years 1890–95, becoming a source of mutual inspiration. Dehmel admired Przybyszewski’s ecstatic interpretation of Chopin’s works, while Przybyszewski admired the beauty of Dehmel’s poetic language; both artists were united by a metaphysical philosophy, a tendency to speculate on transcendental ideas, and a peculiar intersection of eroticism and mysticism. Dehmel welcomed Przybyszewski’s treatise Zur Psychologie des Individuums, part 1: Chopin und Nietzsche, and, based on Przybyszewski’s literal translation, he made an artistic translation of K. Ujejski’s Funeral March (he recited this work against the backdrop of the Funeral March from Chopin’s Sonata in B flat minor). One of the poems in Verwandlungen der Venus was dedicated to the Polish writer; inspired by him and with his literary assistance, the pansexual poem Totenmesse (Requiem aeternam) by Przybyszewski was created.

Dehmel remained in close contact with many composers, befriending A. Schönberg, G. Mahler, R. Strauss, M. Reger, among others, and inspiring their work. The philosophical depth of his thought, the evocative power of his poetic vision, his contemplative eroticism, and the musical qualities of his poetry made him the leading poet of German composers of the time; from the 1890s to 1913, over 600 compositions were written to his poems, and the poem Die stille Stadt alone has over 30 musical arrangements.

Literature: Briefe, 2 vols., Berlin 1922–23 (contain correspondence with Schönberg, Mahler, Reger, Pfitzner and R. Strauss, among others); „Zwei Menschen”: Richard und Ida Dehmel. Texte, Bilder, Dokumente, ed. C. Vogel, Göttingen 2021; I. Dehmel „Ihr Leben war bis zum Rand erfüllt”. Die Familienkorrespondenz (1887–1942), eds. F. van Menxel and H.-J. Hoffmann, Baden-Baden 2024; J. Bab Richard Dehmel, Leipzig 1926; H. Slochower Richard Dehmel. Der Mensch und der Denker. Eine Biographie seines Geistes im Spiegelbild der Zeit, Dresden 1928; K. Klein Przybyszewski i Dehmel, “Ruch Literacki” 1928 no. 7; J. Birke R. Dehmel und A. Schönberg. Ein Briefwechsel, “Die Musikforschung” XI, 1958; S. Przybyszewski Moi współcześni, Warsaw 1959; J. Birke Nachträge zum Briefwechsel zwischen Dehmel und Schönberg, “Die Musikforschung” XVII/1 (1964); H. Fritz Literarischer Jugendstil und Expressionismus. Zur Kunsttheorie, Dichtung und Wirkung Richard Dehmels, Stuttgart 1969; R. Gerlach Die Handschriften der Dehmel-Lieder von A. Webern, “Archiv für Musikwissenschaft” XXIX, 1972; M. Fialek Dehmel, Przybyszewski, Mombert. Drei Vergessene der deutschen Literatur. Mit bisher unveröffentlichten Dokumenten aus dem Moskauer Staatsarchiv, Berlin 2009; C. Vogel Schöne wilde Welt. Richard Dehmel in den Künste, Göttingen 2020.