List Of German-language Poets
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - List Of German-language Poets
OR:
List Of German-language Poets on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

This list contains the names of
individuals An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...
(of any
ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...
or
nationality Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of culture. In international law, n ...
) who wrote
poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
in the
German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...
. Most are identified as "German poets", but some are not
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
.


A

*
Abraham a Sancta Clara Abraham a Sancta Clara (born Johann Ulrich Megerle; 2 July 16441 December 1709) was an Augustinian friar. Early life Sancta Clara was born Johann Ulrich Megerle, in Kreenheinstetten, Germany on 2 July 1644. He was described as "a very ecc ...
*
Friedrich Achleitner Friedrich Achleitner (23 May 1930 – 27 March 2019) was an Austrian poet and architecture critic. As a member of the Wiener Gruppe, he wrote concrete poems and experimental literature. His magnum opus is a multi-volume documentation of 20th-cent ...
*
Ilse Aichinger Ilse Aichinger (1 November 1921 – 11 November 2016) was an Austrians, Austrian writer known for her accounts of her persecution by the Nazis because of her Jewish ancestry.
* Renate Aichinger *
Dietmar von Aist Dietmar von Aist (c. 1115 – c. 1171) was a Minnesinger from a baronial family in the Duchy of Austria, whose work is representative of the lyric poetry in the Danube region. Life One Dietmar von Aist is mentioned by name from about 1139 onward ...
*
Heinrich Albert (composer) Heinrich Albert (also Heinrich Alberti) (28 June 1604 – 6 October 1651) was a German composer and poet of the 17th century. He was a member of the Königsberg Poetic Society (''Königsberger Dichterkreis''). As a song composer, he was strongly ...
*
Der wilde Alexander Der wilde Alexander, also known as Meister Alexander, was a medieval Minnesänger who was active from the mid-1200s until after 1288. His works are considered to be part of the '' Sangspruchdichtung.'' Life Perhaps originally from Württemberg o ...
* Hermann Allmers *
Peter Paul Althaus Peter Paul Althaus (28 July 1892, Münster – 16 September 1965, Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany ...
*
Günther Anders Günther Anders (; born Günther Siegmund Stern, 12 July 1902 – 17 December 1992) was a German-born philosopher, journalist and critical theorist. Trained as a philosopher in the phenomenological tradition, he obtained his doctorate under ...
*
Alfred Andersch Alfred Hellmuth Andersch (; 4 February 1914 – 21 February 1980) was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany, and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland. ...
*
Ernst Moritz Arndt Ernst Moritz Arndt (26 December 1769 – 29 January 1860) was a German nationalist historian, writer and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany. Arndt had to flee to Swed ...
*
Achim von Arnim Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim (26 January 1781 – 21 January 1831), better known as Achim von Arnim, was a German poet, novelist, and together with Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff, a leading figure of German Romanticism. ...
*
Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano; 4 April 178520 January 1859) was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual artist, an illustrator, patr ...
*
Hans Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (; ; 16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born Hans Peter Wilhelm Ar ...
* H. C. Artmann *
Hans Erasmus Aßmann Hans Erasmus Aßmann, Freiherr von Abschatz (4 February 1646 – 22 April 1699) was a German statesman and poet from the second Silesian school. Life Abschatz was born at Würbitz ( Wierzbnica) in Lower Silesia in the Bohemian crown lands of ...
*
Hartmann von Aue Hartmann von Aue, also known as Hartmann von Ouwe, (born ''c.'' 1160–70, died ''c.'' 1210–20) was a German knight and poet. With his works including '' Erec'', '' Iwein'', '' Gregorius'', and '' Der arme Heinrich'', he introduced the Arthu ...
*
Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg, also known under the name Anastasius Grün (11 April 180612 September 1876), was an Austrian poet and liberal politician from Carniola, a former Habsburg crown land in today's Slovenia. Early life He was bor ...
*
Rose Ausländer Rose Ausländer (born Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer; May 11, 1901 – January 3, 1988) was a Jewish poet writing in German and English. Born in Czernowitz in the Bukovina, she lived through its tumultuous history of belonging to the Austro-Hungarian E ...


B

*
Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (; 25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. She is regarded as one of the major voices of German-language literature in the 20th century. In 1963, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature b ...
*
Hugo Ball Hugo Ball (; 22 February 1886 – 14 September 1927) was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry. ...
* Wolfgang Bauer *
Kerstin Becker Kerstin Becker (born 14 March 1969 in Frankenberg, East Germany) is a German writer and poet. Work and life Kerstin Becker was raised in Moosheim und Hainichen in Saxony. She worked as a typesetter and cemetery florist amongst others. In the la ...
*
Konrad Bayer Konrad Bayer (17 December 1932 – October 1964) was an Austrian writer and poet. A member of the Wiener Gruppe, he combined apparently irreconcilable elements—violence, hermeticism, pessimism, ecstasy, banality—and influences (dadaism, surre ...
*
Marcel Beyer Marcel Beyer (born 23 November 1965) is a German writer. Life Marcel Beyer was born in Tailfingen, Württemberg, and grew up in Kiel and Neuss. From 1987 to 1991, he studied German studies, German language and literature, English studies and li ...
*
Johannes Robert Becher Johannes Robert Becher (, 22 May 1891 – 11 October 1958) was a German politician, novelist, and poet. He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before World War II. At one time, he was part of the literary avant-garde, writi ...
* Jürgen Becker * Richard Beer-Hofmann *
Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951. Biography and work Family and beginnings G ...
*
Michael Beheim Michael Beheim (also Michel Behaim, Beham or Behm, 1416 – c.1472) was a wandering singer from the modern-day German state Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state ...
*
Werner Bergengruen Werner Bergengruen (September 16, 1892 – September 4, 1964) was a Baltic German novelist and poet. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Life and career Bergengruen was born in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, which at that tim ...
*
Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, poet and polemicist who is considered one of the most important German-language authors of the postwar era. He explored themes of death, iso ...
*
Alexandra Bernhardt Alexandra Bernhardt (born 1974 in Bavaria, Germany) is a German philosopher, poet, writer, translator, editor and publisher with Slovenian and Austrian roots living in Austria. Life and work Alexandra Bernhardt read philosophy, comparative lite ...
*
Jörg Bernig Jörg Heinz Bernig (born 17 January 1964) is a German poet, novelist and essayist. Biography Jörg Bernig is a descendant of Sudeten German refugees. He studied at the University of Leipzig from 1985 to 1990 (German and English) after completing ...
* F. W. Bernstein *
Marcel Beyer Marcel Beyer (born 23 November 1965) is a German writer. Life Marcel Beyer was born in Tailfingen, Württemberg, and grew up in Kiel and Neuss. From 1987 to 1991, he studied German studies, German language and literature, English studies and li ...
*
Horst Bienek Horst Bienek (7 May 1930 in Gleiwitz – 7 December 1990 in Munich) was a German novelist and poet. Life Born in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany (today Gliwice, Poland), Bienek was forced to leave there in 1945 when Germans were expelled fro ...
*
Otto Julius Bierbaum Otto Julius Bierbaum (28 June 1865 – 1 February 1910) was a German writer. Bierbaum was born in Grünberg, Silesia. After studying in Leipzig, he became a journalist and editor for the journals ''Die freie Bühne'', ''Pan'' and '' Die Insel'' ...
*
Wolf Biermann Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song " Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976. Early life Biermann was ...
*
Johannes Bobrowski Johannes Bobrowski (originally ''Johannes Konrad Bernhard Bobrowski''; 9 April 1917 – 2 September 1965) was a German lyric poet, narrative writer, adaptor and essayist. Life Bobrowski was born on 9 April 1917Bobrowski, Johannes (1984). ''S ...
* Paul Boldt *
Wolfgang Borchert Wolfgang Borchert (; 20 May 1921 – 20 November 1947) was a German author and playwright whose work was strongly influenced by his experience of dictatorship and his service in the ''Wehrmacht'' during the Second World War. His work is among t ...
* Nicolas Born *
Thomas Brasch Thomas Brasch (19 February 1945 – 3 November 2001) was a British and German author, poet and film director. Life Born in Westow, Yorkshire, England, Thomas Brasch was the son of German Jewish Communist émigré parents. In 1947, the family re ...
*
Volker Braun Volker Braun (born 7 May 1939 in Dresden) is a German writer. His works include ''Provokation für mich'' (''Provocation for me'') – a collection of poems written between 1959 and 1964 and published in 1965, a play, ''Die Kipper'' (''The Dumpe ...
*
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
* Helene Brehm *
Clemens von Brentano Clemens Wenzeslaus Brentano (also Klemens; pseudonym: Clemens Maria Brentano ; ; 9 September 1778 – 28 July 1842) was a German poet and novelist, and a major figure of German Romanticism. He was the uncle, via his brother Christian, of Franz a ...
*
Theo Breuer Theo Breuer (born 30 March 1956) is a German poet, essayist, editor, translator and publisher. Life and work Theo Breuer was born in Bürvenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany and educated at Cologne University where he studied German a ...
*
Rolf Dieter Brinkmann Rolf Dieter Brinkmann (16 April 1940 – 23 April 1975) was a German writer of poems, short stories, a novel, essays, letters, and diaries. Life and work Rolf Dieter Brinkmann is considered an important forerunner of the German so-called '' Pop- ...
*
Georg Britting Georg Britting (born 17 February 1891 in Regensburg; died 27 April 1964 in Munich) was a German poet, short story writer, and essayist. Life Britting spent his early years in Regensburg. His writing career began in 1911, when he began publishi ...
*
Hermann Broch Hermann Broch (; 1 November 1886 – 30 May 1951) was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: '' The Sleepwalkers'' (''Die Schlafwandler,'' 1930–32) and '' The Death of Virgil'' (''Der Tod des Vergil,'' 1945). ...
*
Barthold Heinrich Brockes Barthold Heinrich Brockes (September 22, 1680 – January 16, 1747) was a German poet. Biography He was born in Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. He studied jurisprudence at Halle, and after extensive travels in It ...
*
August Buchner August Buchner (2 November 1591 – 12 February 1661) was a German philologist, poet and literary scholar, an influential professor of poetry and rhetoric at the University of Wittenberg. Career Buchner was born in Dresden the son of Paul Buch ...
*
Georg Büchner Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchn ...
*
Gottfried August Bürger Gottfried August Bürger (31 December 1747 – 8 June 1794) was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, ''Lenore (ballad), Lenore'', found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English l ...
*
Hermann Burger Hermann Burger (10 July 1942 – 28 February 1989) was a Swiss people, Swiss poet, novelist and essayist. In his creative works Burger often focused on society's lonely outsiders and, increasingly, the inevitability of death. His virtuosity in app ...
*
Erika Burkart Erika Burkart (8 February 1922 – 14 April 2010) was a Swiss writer, teacher and poet. She wrote poems and epic poems, and received international recognition. Burkart was the recipient of many awards, among them the Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer-Preis ...
*
Wilhelm Busch Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 â€“ 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day. Busch drew on the tropes of f ...


C

*
Paul-Henri Campbell Paul-Henri Campbell (birth name: Christopher Paul-Henri Campbell; born 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a German- American author. He writes in English and German. He studied classical philology (Ancient Greek) and Catholic theology at the Na ...
*
Hans Carossa Hans Carossa (15 December 1878 in Bad Tölz, Kingdom of Bavaria – 12 September 1956 in Rittsteig near Passau) was a German novelist and poet, known mostly for his autobiographical novels, and his inner emigration during the Nazi Germany, Nazi e ...
*
Daniel Casper von Lohenstein Daniel Casper (25 January 1635 in Nimptsch, Niederschlesien – 28 April 1683 in Breslau, Niederschlesien), also spelled Daniel Caspar, and referred to from 1670 as Daniel Casper von Lohenstein, was a Baroque Silesian playwright, lawyer, diplo ...
*
Paul Celan Paul Celan (; ; born Paul Antschel; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a German-speaking Romanian poet, Holocaust survivor, and literary translation, literary translator. He adopted his pen name (an anagram of the Romanian spelling Ancel ...
*
Conrad Celtes Conrad Celtes (; ; 1 February 1459 – 4 February 1508) was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and poet of the German Renaissance born in Franconia (nowadays part of Bavaria). He led the theatrical performances at the Viennese court and ...
*
Adelbert von Chamisso Adelbert von Chamisso (; 30 January 1781 – 21 August 1838) was a German poet, writer and botanist. He was commonly known in French as Adelbert de Chamisso (or Chamissot) de Boncourt, a name referring to the family estate at Boncourt. Life ...
* Hanns Cibulka *
Matthias Claudius Matthias Claudius (15 August 1740 – 21 January 1815) was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of "Asmus". Life Claudius was born at Reinfeld, near Lübeck, and studied at Jena. He spent the greater part of his life i ...
* Mara-Daria Cojocaru * Ann Cotten *
Heinz Czechowski Heinz Czechowski (7 February 1935 – 21 October 2009) was a German poet and dramatist. At the age of ten, Czechowski survived the highly destructive bombing of his birthplace of Dresden. After training in surveying and graphic design, he studied ...
* Daniel Czepko von Reigersfeld * Elfriede Czurda


D

*
Simon Dach Simon Dach (29 July 1605 – 15 April 1659) was a German lyrical poet and hymnwriter, born in Memel, Duchy of Prussia (now Klaipėda in Lithuania). Early life Although brought up in humble circumstances (his father was a poorly paid court int ...
*
Theodor Däubler Theodor Däubler (17 August 1876 – 13 June 1934) was a poet and cultural critic in the German language. He was born in Trieste, then part of Austro-Hungary and has been described as "Trieste's most important German-speaking writer". Early life ...
* Georg Friedrich Daumer *
Max Dauthendey Max Dauthendey (25 July 1867 – 29 August 1918) was a German author and painter of the impressionist period. He was born in Würzburg and died in Malang. Together with Richard Dehmel and Eduard von Keyserling, he is regarded as one of the mos ...
*
Franz Josef Degenhardt Franz Josef Degenhardt (3 December 193114 November 2011) was a German poet, satirist, novelist, and – first and foremost – a folksinger/songwriter (Liedermacher) with decidedly left-wing politics. He was also a lawyer, bearing the academic d ...
*
Richard Dehmel Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (18 November 1863 – 8 February 1920) was a German poet and writer. Life A forester's son, Richard Dehmel was born in Hermsdorf near Wendisch Buchholz (now a part of Münchehofe) in the Brandenburg Province, ...
*
Friedrich Christian Delius Friedrich Christian Delius (13 February 1943 – 30 May 2022), also known by his pen name F.C. Delius, was a German novelist. He wrote books about historic events, such as the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and RAF terrorism. Four of his novels were tran ...
*
Franz von Dingelstedt Franz von Dingelstedt (30 June 1814 – 15 May 1881) was a German poet, dramatist and theatre administrator. Life and career Dingestedt was born at Halsdorf, Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), Germany, and later studied at the University of Marbur ...
* Hugo Dittberner * Reinhard Döhl *
Tankred Dorst Tankred Dorst (19 December 1925 – 1 June 2017) was a German playwright and storyteller. Dorst lived and worked in Munich. His farces, parables, one-act-plays and adaptations were inspired by the theatre of the absurd and the works of Ionesco ...
* Lebrecht Blücher Dreves *
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Baroness Anna Elisabeth Franziska Adolphine Wilhelmine Louise Maria von Droste zu Hülshoff, known as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (; 10 January 179724 May 1848), was a 19th-century German Biedermeier poet, novelist, and composer of Classical ...
*
Özlem Özgül Dündar Özlem Özgül Dündar (born 1983 in Solingen, Germany) is a German poet, essayist, translator, and novelist. Personal life Dündar was born in Solingen, Germany. She attended the University of Wuppertal and studied philosophy and literature the ...


E

*
Albert Ehrenstein Albert Ehrenstein (23 December 1886 – 8 April 1950) was an Austrian-born German Expressionist poet. His poetry exemplifies rejection of bourgeois values and fascination with the Orient, particularly with China. He spent most of his life in ...
*
Günter Eich Günter Eich (; 1 February 1907 – 20 December 1972) was a German poet, radio playwright, and writer. He was born in Lebus, on the Oder River, and educated in Leipzig, Berlin, and Paris. Life Eich made his first appearance in print with some p ...
*
Joseph von Eichendorff Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...
*
Adolf Endler Adolf Endler (20 September 1930 – 2 August 2009) was a lyric poet, essayist and prose author who played a central role in subcultural activities that attacked and challenged an outdated model of socialist realism in the German Democratic Re ...
*
Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...
*
Heinz Erhardt Heinz Erhardt (; 20 February 1909 – 5 June 1979) was a German comedian, musician, entertainer, actor and poet. Life Heinz Erhardt was born in Riga, the son of Baltic German Kapellmeister Gustav Erhardt. He lived most of his childhood at his gr ...
*
Wolfram von Eschenbach Wolfram von Eschenbach (; – ) was a German knight, poet and composer, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of medieval German literature. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry. Life Little is known of Wolfram's life. Ther ...


F

*
Gustav Falke Gustav Falke (11 January 1853 – 8 February 1916) was a German writer. Life Falke was born in Lübeck to merchant Johann Friedrich Christian Falke and his wife Elisabeth Franziska Hoyer. The historians Johannes and were his uncles, and the t ...
*
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben August Heinrich Hoffmann (, calling himself von Fallersleben, after his hometown; 2 April 179819 January 1874) was a German poet. He is best known for writing "", whose third stanza is now the national anthem of Germany, and a number of popular ...
*
Fereydoun Farrokhzad Fereydoun Farrokhzad (; October 7, 1936 – August 7, 1992) was an Iranian showman, host, poet, actor, political activist, singer, humanitarian, and writer. He is best known for his television variety show, ''The Silver Carnation'', which introdu ...
*
Jörg Fauser Jörg Fauser (16 July 1944 – 17 July 1987) was a German writer, poet and journalist. The influence of the American beat generation literature on his works is well known. Together with Carl Weissner and other colleagues he published several is ...
* Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben * Frank Findeiß *
Johann Fischart Johann Baptist Fischart (c. 1545 – 1591) was a German satirist and publicist. Biography Fischart was born, probably, at Strasbourg (but according to some accounts at Mainz), in or about the year 1545, and was educated at Worms in the house of ...
*
Cäsar Flaischlen Cäsar Flaischlen (12 May 1864 – 16 October 1920) was a German German poetry, poet. He is best known as the author of "Hab' Sonne im Herzen" ("Have Sunshine in Your Heart"), which has been translated into various languages. Composers such as P ...
* Paul Fleming *
Walter Flex Walter Flex (6 July 1887 – 16 October 1917) was a German author of ''The Wanderer between the Two Worlds: An Experience of War'' (''Der Wanderer zwischen beiden Welten'') of 1916, a war novel dealing with themes of humanity, friendship, and suff ...
*
Hans Folz Hans Folz ( 1437 – January 1513) was a German author of the late medieval German Renaissance, early Renaissance period. Folz was born in Worms, Germany, Worms. He was made a citizen of the city of Nuremberg, Germany in 1459 and master barber of ...
*
Theodor Fontane Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language Literary realism, realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he i ...
*
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué (; 12 February 1777 – 23 January 1843) was a German writer of the Romantic style. Biography He was born at Brandenburg an der Havel, of a family of French Huguenot origin, as evidenced in h ...
*
Franzobel Franzobel is the pseudonym of the Austrian writer (Franz) Stefan Griebl. He was born on 1 March 1967 in Vöcklabruck, Upper Austria. In 1997, he won the Wolfgang Weyrauch Prize and in 1998, the Kassel Literary Prize, amongst numerous other lit ...
*
Heinrich Frauenlob Heinrich Frauenlob (between 1250 and 1260 – 29 November 1318), sometimes known as Henry of Meissen (''Heinrich von Meißen''), was a Middle High German poet, a representative of both the '' Sangspruchdichtung'' and ''Minnesang'' genres. He was o ...
*
Ferdinand Freiligrath Ferdinand Freiligrath (17 June 1810 – 18 March 1876) was a German poet, translator and liberal agitator, who is considered part of the Young Germany movement. Life Freiligrath was born in Detmold, Principality of Lippe. His father was a teacher ...
*
Erich Fried Erich Fried (6 May 1921 – 22 November 1988) was an Austrian-born poet, writer, and translator. He initially became known to a broader public in both Germany and Austria for his political poetry, and later for his love poems. As a writer, he ...
*
Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity (social science), identity, individuality, Moral responsibility, responsibility, morality, and political commi ...
* Gerhard Fritsch *
Franz Fühmann Franz Fühmann (15 January 1922 â€“ 8 July 1984) was a German writer who lived and worked in East Germany. He wrote in a variety of formats, including short stories, essays, screenplays and children's books. Influenced by Nazism in his yout ...
* Louis Fürnberg


G

*
Emanuel Geibel Emanuel von Geibel (17 October 18156 April 1884) was a German poet and playwright. Life Geibel was born at Lübeck, the son of a pastor. He was originally intended for his father's profession and studied at Bonn and Berlin, but his real interests ...
*
Christian Fürchtegott Gellert Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (4 July 171513 December 1769) was a German poet, one of the forerunners of the golden age of German literature that was ushered in by Lessing. Biography Gellert was born at Hainichen in Saxony, at the foot of the ...
*
Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential liter ...
*
Paul Gerhardt wikisource:The New International Encyclopædia/Gerhardt, Paulus, Paulus or Paul Gerhardt (12 March 1607 – 27 May 1676) was a German theologian, Lutheranism, Lutheran minister and hymnodist. Biography Gerhardt was born into a middle-class fam ...
*
Robert Gernhardt Robert Gernhardt (13 December 1937 – 30 June 2006) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist and poet. Life Robert Gernhardt was born the son of a judge and a chemist in Tallinn, where his family was part of the Baltic German minority. In ...
*
Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg (3 January 1737 – 1 November 1823) was a German poet and critic. Gerstenberg was born in Tønder, Denmark. After attending school in Husum and at the Christianeum Hamburg, and studying law at the Universi ...
*
Elfriede Gerstl Elfriede Gerstl (16 June 1932 – 9 April 2009) was an Austrian author and Holocaust-survivor. Gerstl, who was Jewish, was born in Vienna, where her father worked as a dentist. Biography She survived the war years by hiding in various locations w ...
* Adolf Glassbrenner *
Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (2 April 1719 – 18 February 1803) was a German poet, commonly associated with the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment and Rococo#Literature, Rococo movements. Life Gleim was born at the small town of Ermsleben in t ...
* Leopold Friedrich Günther von Goeckingk * Albrecht Goes *
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
*
Johann Nikolaus Götz Johann Nikolaus Götz (July 9, 1721 – November 4, 1781) was a German poet from Worms, Germany, Worms. Biography Götz was born in Worms, Germany, Worms. He studied theology at university of Halle, Halle (1739–1742), where he became intimate ...
*
Yvan Goll Yvan Goll (also written Iwan Goll, Ivan Goll; born Isaac Lang; 29 March 1891 – 27 February 1950) was a French-German poet who was bilingual and wrote in both French and German. He had close ties to both German expressionism and to French surr ...
*
Eugen Gomringer Eugen Gomringer (born 20 January 1925 in Cachuela Esperanza, Bolivia) is a Bolivian-born Swiss concrete poet. He is head of the Institut für Konstruktive Kunst und Konkrete Poesie (IKKP) in Rehau, Germany. Between 1977 and 1990, he was a profe ...
* Nora-Eugenie Gomringer * Peter Gosse *
Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter (3 September 1746 – 18 March 1797) was a German poet, dramatist, and opera librettist. Biography He was born at Gotha. He started out studying law, but early on was influenced to write for the theatre. After the compl ...
*
Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 â€“ 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...
* Fritz Grasshoff *
Martin Greif Martin Joel Greif (February 4, 1938, The Bronx, New York City - November 17, 1996, Cork, Ireland) was an American editor, lecturer, publisher and writer. He was the uncle of heavy metal music personality and lawyer Eric Greif. Background Son of ...
*
Franz Grillparzer Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (15 January 1791 – 21 January 1872) was an Austrian writer who was considered to be the leading Austrian dramatist of the 19th century. His plays were and are frequently performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna. He ...
*
Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621/22 – 17 August 1676) was one of the most notable German authors of the 17th century. He is best known for his 1669 picaresque novel ''Simplicius Simplicissimus'' () and the accompanying ''Simplic ...
*
Klaus Groth Klaus Groth (24 April 1819 – 1 June 1899) was a Low German poet. Biography Groth was born in Heide, in Ditmarschen, the western part of the Duchy of Holstein. He was the oldest son of Hartwig Groth, a miller, and his wife Anna Christina. ...
*
Durs Grünbein Durs Grünbein (born 1962) is a German poet and essayist. Life and career Durs Grünbein was born in Dresden in 1962 and grew up there. He studied Theater Studies in East Berlin, to which he moved in 1985. Since the Peaceful Revolution nonvio ...
*
Andreas Gryphius Andreas Gryphius (; 2 October 161616 July 1664) was a German poet and playwright. With his eloquent sonnets, which contains "The Suffering, Frailty of Life and the World", he is considered one of the most important Baroque poets of the Germanos ...
* Johann Christian Günther


H

*
Peter Hacks Peter Hacks (21 March 1928 – 28 August 2003) was a German playwright, author, and essayist. Hacks was born in Breslau (WrocÅ‚aw), Lower Silesia. Displaced by World War II, Hacks settled in Munich in 1947, where he made acquaintance with T ...
* Maja Haderlap *
Johannes Hadlaub Johannes Hadlaub (fl. 1300, d. before 1340) was one of the Minnesingers whose works are recorded in ''Codex Manesse''. He was a citizen of Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the cap ...
*
Friedrich von Hagedorn Friedrich von Hagedorn (23 April 1708 – 28 October 1754) was a German Rococo#Literature, Rococo poet. He was born in Hamburg, where his father, a man of scientific and literary taste, was the Danish ambassador. His younger brother, Christian Lud ...
* Reinmar von Hagenau *
Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrians, Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has ...
*
Georg Philipp Harsdörffer Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1 November 1607 – 17 September 1658) was a Jurist, Baroque-period German poet and translator. Life and career Georg Philipp Harsdörffer was born in Nuremberg on 1 November 1607 into a patrician family. He studied ...
*
Otto Erich Hartleben Otto Erich Hartleben (3 June 1864 – in Clausthal; 11 February 1905 in Salò) was a German poet and dramatist from Clausthal, known for his translation of '' Pierrot Lunaire''. Childhood, Education and Marriage Orphaned as a child, Hartleb ...
*
Peter Härtling Peter Härtling (; 13 November 1933 – 10 July 2017) was a German writer, poet, publisher and journalist. He received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his major contribution to German literature. Biography Härtling was ...
*
Walter Hasenclever Walter Georg Alfred Hasenclever (8 July 1890 – 22 June 1940) was a German Jewish Expressionist poet and playwright. His works were banned when the Nazis came to power and he went into exile in France. There he was imprisoned as a "foreign e ...
*
Wilhelm Hauff Wilhelm Hauff (29 November 180218 November 1827) was a German poet and novelist. Early life Hauff was born in Stuttgart, the son of August Friedrich Hauff, a secretary in the Württemberg ministry of foreign affairs, and Hedwig Wilhelmine Elsa ...
*
Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of Naturalism (literature), literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into h ...
*
Friedrich von Hausen Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...
*
Albrecht Haushofer Albrecht Georg Haushofer (7 January 1903 – 23 April 1945) was a German geographer, diplomat, author and member of the German Resistance to Nazism. Life Haushofer was born in Munich, the son of the retired World War I general and geographer K ...
*
Christian Friedrich Hebbel Christian Friedrich Hebbel (18 March 1813 – 13 December 1863) was a German poet and dramatist. Biography Hebbel was born at Wesselburen in Dithmarschen, Holstein, the son of a bricklayer. He was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums ...
*
Johann Peter Hebel Johann Peter Hebel (10 May 1760 â€“ 22 September 1826) was a German short story writer, dialectal poet, Lutheran theologian and pedagogue, most famous for a collection of Alemannic lyric poems (''Allemannische Gedichte'') and one of Ger ...
*
Johann Heermann Johann Heermann (11 October 158517 February 1647) was a German poet and hymnodist. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 26 October with Philipp Nicolai and Paul Gerhardt. Life Heermann was born in Raudten ( ...
*
Martina Hefter Martina Hefter (born 11 June 1965 in Pfronten) is a German author and performance artist. Her works have received numerous literature prizes both for poetry and for prose. Life Martina Hefter initially trained as a gymnastics teacher with a foc ...
*
Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...
*
Guy Helminger Guy Helminger (born 1963) is a Luxembourgish author who has written a number of successful novels and plays in German. Biography Guy Helminger, the younger brother of author Nico Helminger, was born on 20 January 1963 in Esch-sur-Alzette in sout ...
* Hans-Jürgen Heise *
Helmut Heißenbüttel Helmut Heißenbüttel (21 June 1921 – 19 September 1996) was a German novelist and poet. Among Heißenbüttel's works are ''Das Textbuch'' (''The Textbook'') and ''Marlowe's Ende'' (''Marlowe's End''). He received the Georg Büchner Prize in 196 ...
*
Guy Helminger Guy Helminger (born 1963) is a Luxembourgish author who has written a number of successful novels and plays in German. Biography Guy Helminger, the younger brother of author Nico Helminger, was born on 20 January 1963 in Esch-sur-Alzette in sout ...
* Karl Friedrich Henckell *
Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder ( ; ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a Prussian philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic. Herder is associated with the Age of Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism. He wa ...
*
Nikolaus Herman Nikolaus Herman (first name also ''Nicolaus'' or ''Niklas''; 1500 – 3 May 1561) was a German Lutheran cantor and teacher, creating numerous Protestant hymns. Some of them are contained in hymnals in several languages. Career Herman was born ...
* Stephan Hermlin *
Georg Herwegh Georg Friedrich Rudolph Theodor Herwegh (31 May 1817 – 7 April 1875) was a German poet,Herwegh, Georg, The Columbia Encyclopedia (2008) who is considered part of the Young Germany movement. Biography He was born in Stuttgart on 31 May 1817, t ...
*
Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss poet and novelist, and the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His interest in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophic ...
* Andrea Heuser *
Georg Heym Georg Theodor Franz Artur Heym (30 October 1887 – 16 January 1912) was a German writer. He is particularly known for his poetry, representative of early Expressionism. Biography Heym was born in Hirschberg, Lower Silesia, in 1887 to H ...
*
Paul Heyse Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the '' Tunnel über der Spree'' in Berlin and '' Die Krokodile'' in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry ...
*
Wolfgang Hilbig Wolfgang Hilbig (31 August 1941 2 June 2007) was a German writer and poet. Life Wolfgang Hilbig was born in Meuselwitz, Germany. His grandfather had emigrated from Biłgoraj (Congress Poland, Russian Empire) before the First World War. In 194 ...
*
Jakob van Hoddis Jakob van Hoddis (16 May 1887 – May/June 1942) was the pen name of the Jewish German expressionist poet Hans Davidsohn, of which "Van Hoddis" is an anagram. His most famous poem ''Weltende'' (''End of the world''), published on 11 January 1 ...
* Sophie Hoechstetter *
Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau (baptised 25 December 1616 – 4 April 1679) was a German poet of the Baroque era. He was born and died in Breslau (WrocÅ‚aw) in Silesia. During his education in Danzig (GdaÅ„sk) and Leiden, he befrie ...
*
Michael Hofmann Michael Hofmann (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet, translator, and critic. ''The Guardian'' has described him as "arguably the world's most influential translator of German into English". Biography Hofmann was born in Freiburg into ...
*
Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, libretto, librettist, Poetry, poet, Playwdramatist, narrator, and essayist. Early life Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, th ...
*
Friedrich Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 â€“ 7 June 1843) was a Germans, German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticis ...
*
Walter Höllerer Walter Höllerer (19 December 1922 – 20 May 2003) was a German writer, literary critic, and literature academic. He was professor of literary studies at Technische Universität Darmstadt from 1959 to 1988. Höllerer was a member of the Group 4 ...
* Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty *
Arno Holz Arno Hermann Oscar Alfred Holz (26 April 1863 – October 1929) was a German naturalist poet and dramatist. He is best known for his poetry collection ''Phantasus'' (1898). He was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel prize in litera ...
*
Peter Huchel Peter Huchel (April 3, 1903 – April 30, 1981), born Hellmut Huchel, was a German poet and editor. Life Huchel was born in Lichterfelde (now part of Berlin). From 1923 to 1926, Huchel studied literature and philosophy in Berlin, Freiburg and ...
*
Richard Huelsenbeck Carl Wilhelm Richard Hülsenbeck (aka Charles R. Hulbeck) (23 April 189220 April 1974) was a German writer, poet, and psychoanalyst born in Frankenau, Hessen-Nassau who was associated with the formation of the Dada movement. Life and work Afte ...
*
Norbert Hummelt Norbert Hummelt (born 30 December 1962 in Neuss) is a German poet, essayist and translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language ...
*
Christian Friedrich Hunold Christian Friedrich Hunold (born 29 September 1680 in Wandersleben near Gotha, died 16 August 1721 in Halle) was a German author who wrote under the pseudonym Menantes. Biography Hunold went to school in Arnstadt and continued in 1691 at ...
*
Ulrich von Hutten Ulrich von Hutten (21 April 1488 – 29 August 1523) was a German knight, scholar, poet and satire, satirist, who later became a follower of Martin Luther and a Protestant reformer. By 1519, he was an outspoken criticism, critic of the Roman Cat ...


I

*
Karl Leberecht Immermann Karl Leberecht Immermann (24 April 1796 – 25 August 1840) was a German dramatist, novelist and poet. Biography He was born at Magdeburg, the son of a government official. In 1813 he went to study law at Halle, where he remained, after the ...
* Hans Irrigmann


J

*
Johann Georg Jacobi Johann Georg Jacobi (September 2, 1740 – January 4, 1814) was a German poet. Biography The elder brother of the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Johann Georg was born at Pempelfort near Düsseldorf. He studied theology at Göttingen and ...
*
Ernst Jandl Ernst Jandl (; 1 August 1925 – 9 June 2000) was an Austrian writer, poet, and translator. He became known for his experimental lyric, mainly sound poems (''Sprechgedichte'') in the tradition of concrete and visual poetic forms. Poetry Inf ...
*
Elfriede Jelinek Elfriede Jelinek (; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors to write in German and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices ...
*
Albrecht von Johansdorf Albrecht von Johansdorf () was a Minnesänger and a minor noble in the service of Wolfger of Erla. Documents indicate that his life included the years 1185 to 1209. He may have known Walther von der Vogelweide and is believed to have participat ...
*
Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomology, entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir ''Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful busin ...
*
Friedrich Georg Jünger Friedrich "Fritz" Georg Jünger (1 September 1898 – 20 July 1977) was a German writer and lawyer. He wrote poetry, cultural criticism and novels. He was the younger brother of Ernst Jünger. Life and work The younger brother of Ernst Jünger, ...


K

*
Georg Kaiser Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, (25 November 1878 – 4 June 1945) was a German dramatist. Biography Kaiser was born in Magdeburg. He was highly prolific and wrote in a number of different styles. An Expressionist dramatist, ...
*
Franz Xaver Kappus Franz Xaver Kappus (17 May 1883 – 9 October 1966) was an Austrian military officer, journalist, editor and writer who wrote poetry, short-stories, novels and screenplays. Kappus is known chiefly as the military academy cadet who wrote to Austri ...
*
Anna Louisa Karsch Anna Louisa Karsch (1 December 1722 in Przetocznica, Hammer, Silesia – 12 October 1791 in Berlin) was a German autodidact and poet from the Silesia region, known to her contemporaries as "Die Karschin" and "the German Sappho". She became the fir ...
* Yaak Karsunke *
Hermann Kasack Hermann Robert Richard Eugen Kasack (24 July 1896 – 10 January 1966) was a German writer. He is best known for his novel '' Die Stadt hinter dem Strom'' (''The city beyond the river''). Kasack was a pioneer of using the medium broadcast for li ...
*
Abraham Gotthelf Kästner Abraham Gotthelf Kästner (27 September 1719 – 20 June 1800) was a German mathematician and epigrammatist. He was known in his professional life for writing textbooks and compiling encyclopedias rather than for original research. Georg Chr ...
*
Erich Kästner Emil Erich Kästner (; 23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including ''Emil and the Detectives'' and '' Lisa an ...
*
Marie Luise Kaschnitz Marie Luise Kaschnitz (born Marie Luise von Holzing-Berslett; 31 January 1901 – 10 October 1974) was a German short story writer, novelist, essayist and poet. She is considered to be one of the leading post-war German poets. Biography She was b ...
*
Gottfried Keller Gottfried Keller (19 July 1819 – 15 July 1890) was a Swiss poet and writer of German literature. Best known for his novel '' Green Henry'' (German: ''Der grüne Heinrich'') and his cycle of novellas called '' Seldwyla Folks'' (''Die Leute von Se ...
*
Hans Peter Keller Hans-Peter Keller (11 March 1915 – 11 May 1989) was a German poet who authored several poem collections, e.g. ''Auch Gold rostet'' (Even Gold Rusts) or ''Panoptikum aus dem Augenwinkel'' (Panopticum seen from the corner of the eye). In the 1 ...
*
Odile Kennel Odile Kennel (born 1967) is a German writer of French origin known for her poetry and prose, as well as her translations. Life and work Odile Kennel majored in cultural studies and studied political sciences in Tübingen, Berlin and Lisbon. S ...
*
Justinus Kerner Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner (18 September 1786, in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany – 21 February 1862, in Weinsberg, Baden-Württemberg) was a German poet, practicing physician, and medical writer. He gave the first detailed ...
* Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer *
Hermann Kesten Hermann Kesten (28 January 1900 – 3 May 1996) was a German novelist and dramatist. He was one of the principal literary figures of the New Objectivity movement in 1920s Germany. The literary prize Hermann Kesten Medal has been given in his ho ...
*
Gottfried Kinkel Johann Gottfried Kinkel (11 August 1815 – 13 November 1882) was a German poet also noted for his revolutionary activities and his escape from a Prussian prison in Spandau with the help of his friend Carl Schurz. Early life He was born at Ober ...
*
Sarah Kirsch Sarah Kirsch (; 16 April 1935 – 5 May 2013) was a German poet. Biography Sarah Kirsch was originally born Ingrid Bernstein in Limlingerode, Prussian Saxony but had changed her first name to Sarah in order to protest against her father's ...
*
Wulf Kirsten Wulf Kirsten (21 June 1934 – 14 December 2022) was a German poet, novelist, and publisher. He is known for his nature poetry and his essays on the history and culture of Saxony. The son of a stonemason, Kirsten was born in Klipphausen, Meissen ...
*
Karin Kiwus Karin Kiwus (born 9 November 1942) is a German poet from Berlin. After studying journalism, German studies and politology she worked as an editor as well as a university teacher in Austin, Texas. She was the domestic partner of the German film ...
*
Klabund Alfred Henschke (4 November 1890 – 14 August 1928), better known by his pseudonym Klabund, was a German writer. Life Klabund, born Alfred Henschke in 1890 in Krosno Odrzańskie, Crossen, was the son of an apothecary. At the age of 16 he came ...
*
Johann Klaj Johann Klaj (Latinized Clajus) (161616 February 1656) was a German poet. He was born at Meissen in Saxony. After studying theology at University of Leipzig, Wittenberg, he went to Nuremberg as a "candidate for holy orders," and there, in conjunct ...
*
Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
*
Paul Alfred Kleinert Paul Alfred Kleinert (born 24 February 1960) is a German writer, editor and translator. Biography Kleinert was born in Leipzig in 1960 with family roots in Silesia and Gdańsk. He studied theology and did theological and celtic studies in East Be ...
* Ewald Christian von Kleist *
Heinrich von Kleist Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (; 18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays ''The Prince of Homburg'', '' Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'' ...
*
Thomas Kling Thomas Kling (June 5, 1957 – April 1, 2005) was a German poet. Life Thomas Kling was born in Bingen am Rhein, grew up in Hilden and went to school in Düsseldorf. He studied philology in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Vienna and lived in Finland for ...
*
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (; 2 July 1724 – 14 March 1803) was a German poet. His best known works are the epic poem ''Der Messias'' ("The Messiah") and the poem ''Die Auferstehung'' ("The Resurrection"), with the latter set to text in the ...
*
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (15/16 July 1636 – 4 May 1689) was a German Christian Hebraist and Christian Cabalist born at Alt-Raudten (today Stara Rudna) in Silesia. After having completed his studies in the universities of Wittenberg and Le ...
*
Gertrud Kolmar Gertrud Käthe Chodziesner (10 December 1894 – March 1943), known by the literary pseudonym Gertrud Kolmar, was a German lyric poet and writer. She was born in Berlin and was murdered, after her arrest and deportation as a Jew, in Auschwitz, a ...
* Michael Kongehl *
August Kopisch August Kopisch (26 May 1799 â€“ 6 February 1853) was a German poet and painter. Biography Kopisch was born on 26 May 1799 in Breslau, Prussia (now WrocÅ‚aw, Poland). In 1815 he began studying painting at the Prague academy, but an injury t ...
* Theodor Körner * Theodor Kramer * Dagmara Kraus * Karl Kraus * Helmut Krausser * Karl Krolow *
Michael Krüger Michael Krüger may refer to: * Michael Krüger (footballer) Michael Krüger (born 28 May 1954) is a German Association football, football coach and former player. Playing career Krüger was born in Scharnebeck. He played for Arminia Hannover ...
*
James Krüss James Krüss (31 May 1926 – 2 August 1997) was a German writer of children's literature, children's and picture books, illustrator, poet, dramatist, scriptwriter, translator, and collector of children's poems and folk songs. For his contributi ...
* Quirinus Kuhlmann *
Günter Kunert Günter Kunert (; 6 March 1929 – 21 September 2019) was a German writer. Based in East Berlin, he published poetry from 1947, supported by Bertold Brecht. After he had signed a petition against the deprivation of the citizenship of Wolf Bierman ...
*
Reiner Kunze Reiner Kunze (born 16 August 1933 in Oelsnitz, Erzgebirge, Saxony) is a German writer and East Germany, GDR dissident. He studied media and journalism at the University of Leipzig. In 1968, he left the GDR state party Socialist Unity Party of Ge ...
* Der von Kürenberg


L

*
Else Lasker-Schüler Else Lasker-Schüler (née Elisabeth Schüler) (; 11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin and her poetry. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist ...
*
Christine Lavant Christine Lavant (born Christine Thonhauser, mar. Christine Habernig; 4 July 1915 – 7 June 1973) was an Austrian poet and novelist. Life Lavant was born in the hamlet of Großedling (today part of Wolfsberg, Carinthia, Wolfsberg) in the ...
* Hans Leip * Anton G. Leitner *
Nikolaus Lenau Nikolaus Lenau was the pen name of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau (13 August 1802 – 22 August 1850), a German-language Austrian poet. Biography He was born at Csatád (Schadat), Kingdom of Hungary, now Lenauheim, Banat, then p ...
*
Michael Lentz Michael Lentz (born 1964) is a German author, musician, and performer of experimental texts and sound poetry. Life Lentz was born in Düren. His father (1927–2014) was city manager () of Düren. Lentz completed his ''Abitur'' at the in 1983 ...
*
Hermann Lenz Hermann Karl Lenz (26 February 1913 – 12 May 1998) was a German writer of poetry, stories, and novels. A major part of his work is a series of nine semi-autobiographical novels centring on his alter ego "Eugen Rapp", a cycle that is also know ...
*
Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (; ; 23 January 1751 ( OS 12 January 1750) – 4 June 1792 .S. 24 May 1792 was a Baltic German writer of the ''Sturm und Drang'' movement. Life Lenz was born in Seßwegen (Cesvaine), Governorate of Livonia, Russia ...
*
Rudolf Leonhard Rudolf Leonhard (27 October 1889, in Lissa, German Empire (today Leszno, Poland) – 19 December 1953, in East Berlin) was a German author and communist activist. Life Leonhard came from a family of lawyers and studied law and Philology in Berlin ...
*
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (; ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the dev ...
*
Heinrich Leuthold Heinrich Leuthold (9 August 1827–1 July 1879) was a Swiss poet and translator, described by one critic as the writer "most endowed with genius" of the Munich literary circle, ''Die Krokodile''.John George Robertson, Edna Purdie. ''A history ...
*
Thorsten Libotte Thorsten Libotte (born 20 July 1972 in Bonn) is a German writer and poet. Life and career Thorsten Libotte was born 1972 in Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia). After graduating from high school and subsequent military duty he began his biology studi ...
* Alfred Lichtenstein * Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer *
Ulrich von Liechtenstein Ulrich von Liechtenstein (c. 1200 – 26 January 1275) was a German minnesinger, poet and knight of the Middle Ages. He wrote poetry in Middle High German and was author of noted works about how knights and nobles might lead more virtuous lives. ...
*
Detlev von Liliencron Baron Detlev von Liliencron born Friedrich Adolf Axel von Liliencron (3 June 1844 in Kiel22 July 1909) was a German poet and novelist from Kiel. Biography Liliencron was the son of Louis (Ludwig) Freiherr von Liliencron and Adeline von Harten. ...
*
Till Lindemann Till Lindemann (; born 4 January 1963) is a German singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein and solo project Lindemann (band), Lindemann. Rammstein has sold over 25 million records worldw ...
*
Hermann Lingg Hermann (Ritter von) Lingg (22 January 1820 – 18 June 1905) was a German poet who also wrote plays and short stories. His cousin, Maximilian von Lingg, was Bishop of Augsburg. He was born in Lindau. Lingg studied medicine at the universities o ...
* Cvetka Lipuš * Angela Litschev * Otto Heinrich von Loeben *
Friedrich von Logau Friedrich von Logau (January 1605 – 24 July 1655) was a German poet and epigrammatist of the Baroque era. Life He was born the son of Georg von Logau, Estate (land), estate owner in Brochocin, Ząbkowice Śląskie County, Brockut near Niemcza, ...
*
Hermann L̦ns Hermann L̦ns (29 August 1866 Р26 September 1914) was a German journalist and writer. He is most famous as "The Poet of the Heath" for his novels and poems celebrating the people and landscape of the North German moors, particularly the L ...
* Iwar von Lücken *
Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...


M

*
Andreas Mand Andreas Mand (born 14 December 1959) is a German contemporary author of novels, short stories and essays and a playwright. He is one of the representatives of the German Popular literature, and in addition a stay-at-home dad, because he wanted to ...
*
Itzik Manger Itzik Manger (30 May 1901, Czernowitz, then Austrian-Hungarian Empire – 21 February 1969, Gedera, Israel; ) was a prominent Yiddish language, Yiddish poet and playwright, a self-proclaimed folk bard, visionary, and 'master tailor' of the writ ...
*
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
*
Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; March 27, 1871 – March 11, 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German writer known for his sociopolitical novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...
* Uwe Martens * Kurt Marti *
Friedrich von Matthisson Friedrich von Matthisson (23 January 1761 – 12 March 1831) was a German poet, an early member of the German Romantic movement. His best known poem is probably ''Adelaide'', which was set to music by Beethoven. Biography He was born at Hohendod ...
*
Georg Maurer Georg Maurer (11 March 1907 – 4 August 1971) was a German poet, essayist, and translator. He wrote under the pseudonyms ''Juventus, murus,'' and ''Johann Weilau''. The son of a teacher, he was born in Reghin, Szászrégen, Austria-Hungary (now ...
*
Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 â€“ 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his novels of travels and adventures, set in the American Old West, the Orient, the Middle East, Latin America, China and Germany. He als ...
* Karl Mayer *
Friederike Mayröcker Friederike Mayröcker (20 December 1924 – 4 June 2021) was an Austrian writer of poetry and prose, radio plays, children's books and dramatic texts. She experimented with language, and was regarded as an avant-garde poet, and as one of the l ...
*
Christoph Meckel Christoph Meckel (12 June 1935 – 29 January 2020) was a German author and graphic artist. He received awards for his works which connect illustrations with the written text, sometimes texts by others. Life Born in Berlin, Meckel spent his you ...
*
Walter Mehring Walter Mehring (29 April 1896 – 3 October 1981) was a German author and one of the most prominent satirical authors in the Weimar Republic. He was banned during the Third Reich and fled the country. Early life Mehring was Jewish, the so ...
* Ernst Meister *
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (11 October 1825 – 28 November 1898) was a Swiss poet and historical novelist, a master of literary realism who is mainly remembered for stirring narrative ballads like "Die Füße im Feuer" (The Feet in the Fire). Biog ...
*
Johann Martin Miller Johann Martin Miller (3 December 1750 in Ulm – 21 June 1814 in Ulm) was a German theologian and writer. He is best known for his novel ''Siegwart'', which became one of the most successful books at the time. Life Miller, the son of the Ev ...
*
Alfred Mombert Alfred Mombert (6 February 1872, in Karlsruhe – 8 April 1942, in Winterthur) was a Germans, German poet. Biography Mombert was the son of the Jewish-German merchant Eduard Mombert and his wife Helene Gombertz. The economist Paul Mombe ...
*
Christian Morgenstern Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern (6 May 1871 – 31 March 1914) was a German writer and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin ...
*
Eduard Mörike Eduard Friedrich Mörike (; 8 September 18044 June 1875) was a German Lutheran pastor who was also a Romantic poet and writer of novellas and novels. Many of his poems were set to music and became established folk songs, while others were used b ...
*
Heinrich von Morungen Heinrich von Morungen (died 1222) was a Minnesinger, whose 35 surviving Middle High German songs are dated on both literary and biographical grounds to around the period 1190–1200. Alongside Walter von der Vogelweide and Reinmar von Hagenau, Re ...
*
Johann Michael Moscherosch Johann Michael Moscherosch (7 March 1601 – 4 April 1669), German statesman, satirist, and educator, was born at Willstätt, on the Upper Rhine near Strassburg. His bitterly brilliant but partisan writings graphically describe life in a Ge ...
*
Erich Mühsam Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 – 10 July 1934) was a German Antimilitarism, antimilitarist anarchism, anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a Federalism, federated Bavari ...
*
Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postd ...
* Inge Müller *
Wilhelm Müller Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller (7 October 1794 – 30 September 1827) was a German lyric poet, best known as the author of ''Die schöne Müllerin'' (1821) and ''Winterreise'' (1823). These would later be the source of inspiration for two song cy ...
* Börries Freiherr von Münchhausen


N

*
Joachim Neander Joachim Neander (165031 May 1680) was a German Reformed (Calvinist) Church teacher, theologian and hymnwriter whose most famous hymn, '' Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation'' () has been described by John Julian in his '' A ...
*
Johann Nestroy Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (; 7 December 1801 – 25 May 1862) was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath. He participated in the 1848 revolutions and ...
* Georg Neumark *
Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...
*
Philipp Nicolai Philipp Nicolai (10 August 1556 – 26 October 1608) was a German Lutheran pastor, poet, and composer. He is most widely recognized as a hymnodist. Life Philipp Nicolai was born at Mengeringhausen in Waldeck, where his father was a Luthera ...
*
Helga M. Novak Helga M. Novak (pseudonym for Maria Karlsdottir; 8 September 1935 – 24 December 2013) was a German-Icelandic writer. Novak was born in Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and Lis ...
*
Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (; ), was a German nobility, German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and Mysticism, mystic. He is regarded as an inf ...
(Friedrich von Hardenberg)


O

* Andreas Okopenko *
Martin Opitz Martin Opitz von Boberfeld (23 December 1597 – 20 August 1639) was a German poet, regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime. Biography Opitz was born in Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) in Lower Silesia, in the Principality of Schw ...
* Ernst Ortlepp


P

* Bert Papenfuß *
Oskar Pastior Oskar Pastior (; 20 October 1927 – 4 October 2006) was a Romanian-born German poet and translator. He was the only German member of Oulipo. Biography Born into a Transylvanian Saxon family in Sibiu (Hermannstadt) in the Kingdom of Romania, he ...
* Ludwig Pfau *
Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel (28 June 1736 – 1 May 1809) was a French-German writer and translator from the Pfeffel family. His texts were put to music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert. He is sometimes also known as Amé ...
* Heinz Piontek *
August von Platen-Hallermünde Karl August Georg Maximilian Graf von Platen-Hallermünde (24 October 17965 December 1835) was a German poet and dramatist. In German he mostly is called ''Graf'' (Count) Platen. Biography August von Platen was born on 24 October 1796 at Ansbac ...
* Johannes Plavius * Steffen Popp *
Kerstin Preiwuß Kerstin Preiwuß (born 21 November 1980 in Lübz, Germany) is a German writer and arts journalist. Life and work Preiwuß was raised in Plau am See and in Rostock. She studied German studies, philosophy and psychology in Leipzig and Aix-en-Pro ...
* Robert Prutz


R

*
Wilhelm Raabe Wilhelm Raabe (; September 8, 1831November 15, 1910) was a German novelist. His early works were published under the pseudonym of Jakob Corvinus. Biography He was born in Eschershausen (then in the Duchy of Brunswick, now in the Holzminden Dist ...
*
Ferdinand Raimund Ferdinand Raimund (born Ferdinand Jakob Raimann; 1 June 1790 – 5 September 1836, Pottenstein, Austria, Pottenstein, Lower Austria) was an Austrian actor and playwright. Life and work Raimund was born in Vienna as a son of Bohemian woodturn ...
*
Karl Wilhelm Ramler Karl Wilhelm Ramler (25 February 1725 – 11 April 1798) was a German poet who was the Berlin Cadet School master. Ramler was born in Kolobrzeg, Kolberg. After graduating from the University of Halle, he went to Berlin, where, in 1748, he w ...
*
Lutz Rathenow Lutz Rathenow (born 22 September 1952 in Jena) is a dissident German writer and poet who was haunted by the Secret Police until the German reunification. From then on, his fortunes changed, and he received several literary honors and awards. L ...
*
Jacob Regnart Jacob Regnart (French: ''Jacques Regnart''; 1540s – 16 October 1599) was a Flemish Renaissance composer. He spent most of his career in Austria and Bohemia, where he wrote both sacred and secular music. Biography Regnart was born at Douai, one ...
*
Robert Reinick Robert Reinick (22 February 1805 – 7 February 1852) was a German painter and poet, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. One of his poems, '' Dem Vaterland'', was set to music by Hugo Wolf and another, '' The Flight into Egy ...
*
Sophie Reyer Sophie Anna Reyer is an Austrian author of multiple theater pieces and publications. She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1984. Reyer discovered her various profound talents in the arts at a young age as a child prodigy, honing her skills as a scri ...
*
Neidhart von Reuental Neidhart (Middle High German ) (later often called Neidhart von Reuental) was one of the most famous . With around 1500 documented strophes of his songs surviving, Neidhart has the largest corpus of surviving lyrics of any , suggesting the great ...
*
Fritz Reuter Fritz Reuter (7 November 1810 – 12 July 1874; born as ''Heinrich Ludwig Christian Friedrich Reuter'') was a novelist from Northern Germany who was a prominent contributor to Low German literature. Early life Fritz Reuter was born at Stavenhage ...
* Johann Rietsch * Karl Riha *
Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 â€“ 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...
* Monika Rinck *
Joachim Ringelnatz Joachim Ringelnatz is the pen name of the German author and painter Hans Bötticher (7 August 1883 in Wurzen, Saxony – 17 November 1934 in Berlin). From 1894 to 1900 he lived with his family in the Gottschedstrasse 40 in Leipzig. Profile Hi ...
*
Johann Rist Johann Rist (8 March 1607 – 31 August 1667) was a German poet and dramatist best known for his hymns, which inspired musical settings and have remained in hymnals. Life Rist was born at Ottensen in Holstein-Pinneberg (today Hamburg) on 8 Marc ...
*
Slata Roschal Slata Roschal (born 1992 in Saint Petersburg, Russia), also known as Slata Kozakova, is a German writer and literary scholar. Early life and education In 1997, Roschal moved with her parents to Schwerin in Germany where she was raised bilingu ...
*
Eugen Roth Eugen Roth (January 24, 1895 – April 28, 1976) was a Bavarian poet who wrote mostly humorous verse. Roth was born in Munich, the son of the well-known Munich writer Hermann Roth. He volunteered for service in the First World War and was s ...
*
Ralf Rothmann Ralf Rothmann (born 10 May 1953, in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein) is a German novelist, poet, and dramatist. His novels have been translated into several languages, with Knife Edge (''Messers Schneide''), Young Light (''Junges Licht''), Fire Doe ...
*
Friedrich Rückert Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translation, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Biography Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert was born 16 May 1788 in Schweinfurt and was the e ...
*
Gerhard Rühm Gerhard Rühm (born 12 February 1930) is an Austrian author, composer and visual artist. Biography Rühm was born in Vienna. He studied the piano and music composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Following his st ...
*
Peter Rühmkorf Peter Rühmkorf (25 October 1929 – 8 June 2008) was a German writer who significantly influenced German post-war literature. Rühmkorf's literary career started in 1952 in Hamburg with the magazine ''Zwischen den Kriegen'' ("Between the Wars"), ...


S

*
Hans Sachs Hans Sachs (5 November 1494 – 19 January 1576) was a German ''Meistersinger'' ("mastersinger"), poetry, poet, playwright, and shoemaking, shoemaker. Biography Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg (). As a child he attended a singing school that w ...
*
Nelly Sachs Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German–Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazism, Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearn ...
* Ulrike Almut Sandig * Alexios Schandermani (born 1953) * Johannes Scheffler, named
Angelus Silesius Angelus Silesius, Order of Friars Minor, OFM (9 July 1677), born Johann Scheffler, was a German Roman Catholicism, Catholic priest, physician, Mysticism, mystic and Christian poetry, religious poet. Born and raised a Lutheranism, Lutheran, he be ...
*
Silke Scheuermann Silke Scheuermann (born 15 June 1973 in Karlsruhe) is a German poet and novelist. She was educated in Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Paris. She is best known for her debut novel ''Die Stunde zwischen Hund und Wolf'' (The Hour Between Dog and Wolf), whi ...
*
Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...
*
Robert Schindel Robert Schindel (born 4 April 1944) is an Austrian lyricist, director and author. Life and career Robert Schindel was born on 4 April 1944 in Bad Hall, Upper Austria to Jewish communist parents. From 1950 to 1954, he attended elementary schoo ...
*
Kathrin Schmidt Kathrin Schmidt (born 12 March 1958 in Gotha, Bezirk Erfurt), is a German writer. She is known both for her poetry and prose. Life and work Kathrin Schmidt grew up in Gotha and from 1964 in Waltershausen. After graduating from high school, sh ...
*
Sibylla Schwarz Sibylla Schwarz, also known as Sibylle Schwartz (14/24 February 1621 in Greifswald – 31 July/10 August 1638 in Greifswald) was a German poet of the Baroque era. Life Sibylla Schwarz was the daughter of Christian Schwarz (1581–1648), mayor ...
*
Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist. He was born in Hanover, Germany, but lived in exile from 1937. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dadaism, Constructivism (a ...
*
Daniela Seel Daniela Seel (born 4 December 1974) is a German poet, translator, editor and publisher. Life and work Born in Frankfurt, Seel studied German studies, art history and philosophy in Bayreuth, Göttingen and Berlin. In 2003, she founded the publi ...
*
Moriz Seeler Moriz Seeler (1 March 1896 – 18 August 1942) was a German poet, writer, film producer, and man of the theatre. Early life Moritz Seeler was born in the small, provincial town of Gryfice, Greifenberg in Pomerania, Germany (now Gryfice in northwe ...
*
Lutz Seiler Lutz Seiler (born 8 June 1963 in Gera, Thuringia) is a German poet and novelist. Considered one of the most important German poets living today, he is the author of numerous books of poetry, prose, and essays, and gained national attention for h ...
* Clemens J. Setz *
Tamara Štajner Tamara Štajner (born 6 September 1987 in Novo mesto, then Yugoslavia) is a Slovenian violist and writer. She writes in Slovenian and German. Early life and education Štajner grew up in Krško, a town on the Sava in southeastern Slovenia. She l ...
*
Armin Steigenberger Armin Steigenberger (born 7 January 1965 in Nuremberg) is a German poet, novelist, writer, literary editor, and musician. At the end of the 1990s, he was chairman of the Münchner Literaturbüro. He won several literary awards including Irseer Pe ...
*
Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg (7 November 1750 – 5 December 1819), was a German lawyer, and translator. He was also a poet of the ''Sturm und Drang'' and early Romantic periods. Life Friedrich Leopold was born 7 November 1750 ...
*
Ulf Stolterfoht Ulf Stolterfoht (born 8 June 1963 in Stuttgart) is a German writer. Life and work Ulf Stolterfoht opted out of military service and performed civilian service instead, after which he studied German and Linguistics in Bochum und Tübingen. St ...
* Moritz von Strachwitz *
Gottfried von Strassburg Gottfried von Strassburg (died c. 1210) is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance ''Tristan'', an adaptation of the 12th-century ''Tristan and Iseult'' legend. Gottfried's work is regarded, alongside the '' Nibelungenlied'' and Wol ...
*
Botho Strauss Botho Strauss (; written as Botho Strauß) (born 2 December 1944) is a German playwright, novelist, and essayist. Early life His father was a chemist. After finishing his secondary education, Strauss studied German, History of the Theatre a ...
*
Der Stricker Der Stricker is the pseudonym of a 13th-century Middle High German itinerant poet whose real name has been lost to history. His name, which means "The Knitter," may indicate he was a commoner; he was likely from Franconia but later worked in Austri ...


T

* Georg Thurmair * Maria Luise Thurmair *
Ludwig Tieck Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romanticism, Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early life Tieck w ...
* Ilse Tielsch *
Georg Trakl Georg Trakl (; 3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. He is perhaps best known for his poem " Grodek", which h ...
* Hugo von Trimberg *
Süßkind von Trimberg Susskind (German language, German ''Süßkind'' "sweet child", variants ''Suskind'', ''Suskin'', ''Siskind'', ''Ziskind'', ''Ziskin'', ''Siskin'', etc.) is a mostly Jewish surname of German Jews, German origin. History Süsskind in the German medi ...
*
Kurt Tucholsky Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satire, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the Kaspar Hauser, historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wr ...
* Ulrich von Türheim *
Heinrich von dem Türlin Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...


U

*
Ludwig Uhland Johann Ludwig Uhland (26 April 1787 – 13 November 1862) was a German poet, philologist, literary historian, lawyer and politician. Biography He was born in Tübingen, Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, b ...
*
Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Anthony, also spelled Antony, is a masculine given name derived from the '' Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendant ...
* Anja Utler


V

* Hendrik van Veldeke *
Walther von der Vogelweide Walther von der Vogelweide (; ) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs ('' Sprüche'') in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundred or s ...
* Johann Heinrich Voß


W

* Jan Wagner *
Robert Walser Robert Walser (15 April 1878 – 25 December 1956) was a German language Swiss writer. He additionally worked as a copyist, an inventor's assistant, a butler, and in various other low-paying trades. Despite marginal early success in his lit ...
* Peter Waterhouse *
Erich Weinert Erich Bernhard Gustav Weinert (4 August 1890 – 20 April 1953) was a Germans, German Communist writer and a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Early life Weinert was born in 1890 in Magdeburg to a family supporting the Social ...
*
Oswald von Wolkenstein Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376 or 1377 in Pfalzen – August 2, 1445, in Meran) was a poetry, poet, composer and diplomacy, diplomat. In his diplomatic capacity, he traveled through much of Europe to as far as Georgia (country), Georgia (as recoun ...
*
Konrad von Würzburg Konrad von Würzburg (c.1220-1230 – 31 August 1287) was the chief German poet of the second half of the 13th century. As his name suggests, Konrad hailed from the Franconian town of Würzburg. By the standards of medieval poets, his l ...
*
Christa Wolf Christa Wolf (; Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.Uljana Wolf *
Iris Wolff Iris Wolff (born 28 July 1977 as Martina Iris Wolff) is a German writer. Life Wolff was born in Sibiu (''Hermannstadt''), a city in the Transylvania region of what was then the Socialist Republic of Romania. Part of the Transylvanian Saxon co ...


Z

* Judith Zander *
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven Ulrich von Zatzikhoven was the author of the Middle High German Arthurian romance '' Lanzelet''. Ulrich's name and his place of origin ( Zezikon in Switzerland) are only known definitively from the work itself. However, it is generally accepted ...


See also

*
List of German-language philosophers This is a list of German-language philosophers. The following individuals have written philosophical texts in the German language. Many are categorized as German philosophers or Austrian philosophers, but some are neither German nor Austria ...
*
List of German-language authors This list contains the names of persons (of any ethnicity or nationality) who wrote fiction, essays, or Play (theatre), plays in the German language. It includes both living and deceased writers. Most of the Middle Ages, medieval authors are alp ...
*
Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
*
German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...
* List of German-language playwrights *
List of German journalists This is a list of German journalists, those born in Germany and who have established citizenship or residency. A *Aline Abboud (born 1988) * Prince Albrecht of Croÿ (born 1959) *Robin Alexander (born 1975) * Hanns Altermann (1891–1963) *G ...
* Liste deutschsprachiger Dichter


External links


Projekt Gutenberg-DE: all authorsList of authorsGerman Poetry
{{DEFAULTSORT:German-language poets
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
*Poets
Poets A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...