Heym, Georg

Related Category: German Literature: Biographies

(gā´ôrkh hīm), 1887–1912, German poet and novelist of early expressionism. Rebelling against the new romanticism, Heym created the “demon” metropolis. This became his symbol for the tyrannization of man and nature, which he embodied in grotesques of fear and chaos. His works include the poetry collections Der ewige Tag [the eternal day] (1911) and Umbra vitae (1912), a novel, Der Dieb [the thief] (1913), and the tragedies Die Athener Ausfahrt [the Athenians' sally] (1907) and Atalanta (1911).