Anton Schnack (21 July 1892 – 26 September 1973) was a German writer. He joined the German Army when World War I began. He is one of the leading German of the First World War, and has been compared with English poet Wilfred Owen.
Early life
Schnack was born in
Rieneck,
Lower Franconia,
Bavaria. He was the third child of a station commander of the German
gendarmerie. His older brother Friedrich Schnack (1888–1977) also became a writer, known for his works on natural history and children's literature.
Schack followed his father's official postings around Bavaria, to Dettelbach, Kronach and Hammelburg. He attended the Progymnasium in Hammelburg (predecessor of the Frobenius-Gymnasium Hammelburg). He became a journalist, and worked in Halberstadt and Bolzano.
First World War poetry
Schnack served in the Imperial German Army during the First World War. He was wounded in 1916. He began to publish poetry in
Die Aktion in 1915, but only published poetry on war subjects from 1917. His first war poem was "
Schwester Maria" ("Sister Maria"), published in
Die Aktion in January 1917.
He continued to publish war poems in three collections that he published in 1919,
Strophen der Gier ("Verses of greed"),
Der Abenteurer ("The adventurer") and
Die tausend Gelächter ("The thousand laughs").
He published his most significant collection of war poetry, Tier rang gewaltig mit Tier ("Beast strove mightily with beast") in 1920, in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.
His poem "Verdun" was published in 1919 in the first edition of the socialist journal Das Tribunal. He also wrote a remarkable poem about desertion, entitled Der Überlaufer ("The deserter").
Later life
After the end of the First World War, he became an editor in
Darmstadt. From 1920 to 1925, he was a literary editor and theatre critic for the
Neuen Badischen Landes-Zeitung in
Mannheim. He married Maria Glöckler on 24 October 1924. He travelled in
France,
Italy and
Dalmatia before returning to Mannheim and then settled in
Berchtesgaden. He was one of the 88 writers who pledged their allegiance to
Adolf Hitler in October 1933 in a Vow of Most Faithful Allegiance (
Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft).
[ 88 "writers", from Letters of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1900-1949, Volume 12 of Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism, University of California Press 1998 , p. 367-8] He published lighter popular works in the 1930s and 1940s, including his 1935 work
Kleines Lesebuch.
In addition to his poetry, he also wrote some short plays, a few novellas and two novels,
Zugvögel der Liebe (1936) and
Der finstere Franz (1937). His later works have less literary merit, and are overshadowed by his support for the Nazis.
He moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1937, and joined the Wehrmacht (German Army) in 1944. He was captured by US forces. After the Second World War, he settled to Kahl am Main, where he later died in 1973.
Works
|
- Poetry
-
1919 - Strophen der Gier
-
: Der Abenteurer
-
: Die tausend Gelächter
-
1920 - Tier rang gewaltig mit Tier
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1936 - Die Flaschenpost
-
: Die Verstoßenen
-
1947 - Der Annoncenleser
-
1948 - Mittagswein
-
1953 - Jene Dame, welche ...
|
- Prose
-
1934 - Kalender-Kantate
-
1935 - Kleines Lesebuch
-
1937 - Der gute Nachmittag
-
1938 - Die bunte Hauspostille
-
1940 - Begegnungen am Abend
-
1941 - Jugendlegende
-
1946 - Die Angel des Robinson
-
: Arabesken um das ABC
-
: Mädchenmedaillons
-
1949 - Phantastische Geographie
-
1951 - Das fränkische Jahr
-
1954 - Buchstabenspiel
-
1956 - Die Reise aus Sehnsucht
-
: Flirt mit dem Alltag
-
1957 - Brevier der Zärtlichkeit
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1961 - Schöne Mädchennamen
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1964 - Weinfahrt nach Franken
|
- Novels
-
1936 - Zugvögel der Liebe
-
1937 - Der finstere Franz
|
Bibliography
- Notes
- References
-
- Total pages: 209
-
- Total pages: 316
-
- Total pages: 613
-
"German Poetry and the First World War", Patrick Bridgwater, European History Quarterly, 1971
