Carl Wilhelm Richard Hülsenbeck (aka Charles R. Hulbeck) (23 April 189220 April 1974) was a German writer, poet, and

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

born in Frankenau, Hessen-Nassau who was associated with the formation of the

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

movement.

Life and work

After attending the Gymnasium am Ostring in

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

, Huelsenbeck became a medical student on the eve of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He was invalided out of the army and emigrated to

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in February 1916, where he fell in with the Cabaret Voltaire. In January 1917, he moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, taking with him the ideas and techniques which helped him found the Berlin

group. 'To make literature with a gun in my hand had for a time been my dream,' he wrote in 1920. Huelsenbeck was the editor of the ''Dada Almanach'', and wrote ''Dada siegt'', ''En Avant Dada'' and other

ist works.
Richard Hülsenbeck at

Ubuweb UbuWeb is a "a pirate shadow library consisting of hundreds of thousands of freely downloadable avant-garde artifacts." It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. The site was created by ...

Huelsenbeck's autobiography ''Memoirs of a Dada Drummer'' gives detailed accounts of his interactions with many key figures of the movement. Huelsenbeck's ideas fitted in with left-wing politics current at the time in Berlin. However idealistic Huelsenbeck and his companions were, their challenge Dada is German Bolshevism had unfortunate repercussions later, when the National Socialists denounced all aspects of modern art as '' Kunstbolschewismus''. Beginning in 1933, Huelsenbeck was repeatedly investigated by the Nazi authorities. He was forbidden to write and rather than remaining in '

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

', he managed to get an immigration visa to the United States in 1936. He changed his name to Charles R. Hulbeck and practiced medicine and psychoanalysis at the

Karen Horney Karen Horney (; ; ; 16 September 1885 – 4 December 1952) was a German psychoanalyst who practiced in the United States during her later career. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views. This was particularly true of her theories ...

Clinic in Long Island, New York. In 1970 he returned to the

Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...

region of

. Of his music, Hugo Ball wrote, "Huelsenbeck has arrived. He pleads for an intensification of

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

(

Negro In the English language, the term ''negro'' (or sometimes ''negress'' for a female) is a term historically used to refer to people of Black people, Black African heritage. The term ''negro'' means the color black in Spanish and Portuguese (from ...

rhythm). He would best love to drum literature & to perdition." Until the end of his life, Huelsenbeck insisted, "Dada is still existing," although the movement's other founders might not have agreed.

Footnotes

External links

Finding Aid for Richard Huelsenbeck papers, the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Accession No. 910082. The collection includes manuscripts, correspondence, some photographs, clippings and catalogues. {{DEFAULTSORT:Huelsenbeck, Richard 1892 births 1974 deaths People from Waldeck-Frankenberg Dada People from Hesse-Nassau German male poets 20th-century German poets German-language poets German medical writers 20th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers German dadaists