The Association of Proletarian-Revolutionary Authors () was a German cultural organisation established in 1928, at the time of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

. It was close to the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

and published a magazine called . Its members were divided into two groups: the so-called "''bourgeois'' writers" and the so-called '"proletarian writers". The confrontation between the two groups led to a fierce struggle for power within the association, but also to a lively and fruitful cultural debate about the role and form of literature, in the attempt to overcome the 19th century bourgeois models and create a new "revolutionary" model. Important intellectuals of the time took part in the debate, such as Gyorgy Lukács, who was later to contribute to the development of Socialist realism. The last issue of appeared in January 1933. After the Nazis took over power, the association still existed for some time, also in Prague, Paris, Wien, and Switzerland.

Prominent members

* Erich Arendt * Theodor Balk * Johannes R. Becher * Hertha Block * Herbert Bochow * Julian Borchardt (founding member) *

Willi Bredel Willi Bredel (2 May 1901 – 27 October 1964) was a German writer and president of the East Germany, East German Academy of Arts, Berlin. Born in Hamburg, he was a pioneer of socialist realist literature. Life and career Born into the fami ...

* Elfriede Brüning * Albert Daudistel (excluded 20 May 1930) * Andor Gábor * Karl Grünberg * Willy Harzheim * Kurt Kläber * Egon Erwin Kisch (founding member) * Jan Koplowitz *

Berta Lask Berta Lask (; 17 November 1878 – 28 March 1967) was a German writer, playwright and journalist. She joined the Communist Party of Germany, Communist Party in 1923 and much of her published work is strongly polemical. Sources identify her under ...

(founding member) * Maria Leitner * Hans Lorbeer (founding member) * Hans Marchwitza * Klaus Neukrantz *

Ernst Ottwalt Ernst Ottwalt (13 November 1901 – 24 August 1943) was the pen name of German writer and playwright Ernst Gottwalt Nicolas. A communist, he fled Nazi Germany in 1934 and went into exile in the Soviet Union, where he fell victim to the Great Purge ...

Erwin Piscator Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator (17 December 1893 – 30 March 1966) was a German theatre director and Theatrical producer, producer. Along with Bertolt Brecht, he was the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio- ...

* Paul Polte alias Peter Polter * Ludwig Renn (founding member) * Trude Richter * Frida Rubiner * Hans Schwalm * Anna Seghers (founding member) * Alexander Graf Stenbock-Fermor *

Bernhard Bernhard is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar (1604–1639), Duke of Saxe-Weimar *Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (1901–1984), head of the House of Saxe-Meiningen 1946 ...

and Charlotte Temming * Berta Waterstradt * Erich Weinert (founding member) * Franz Carl Weiskopf * Helmut Weiß alias Hans Wendt (Bremen) * Karl August Wittfogel * Friedrich Wolf * Carl Wüsthoff * Max Zimmering * Hermynia Zur Mühlen

Prominent members

See also