Unruh, Fritz Von

Related Category: German Literature: Biographies

(frĭts fən n´r), 1885–1970, German dramatic poet. Son of a Prussian general, Unruh was an officer who became a pacifist after World War I. His expressionist plays include Offiziere (1912), the antiwar Ein Geschlecht [a family] (1917), and its sequel, Platz (1920). The prose epic Opfergang (1918; tr. The Way of Sacrifice, 1928), written during the siege of Verdun, is powerful antiwar propaganda. After the publication of Bonaparte (1927, tr. 1928), his warning against the coming dictatorship, Unruh left Germany, returning in 1948. His other works include The End Is Not Yet (tr. 1947), an anti-Nazi novel, and a play, Odysseus auf Ogygia (1968).