Wolff, Kurt (Publisher)
(3/3/1887, Bonn - 10/21/1963, Ludwigsburg)

In 1908 after completing German studies, he joined the Leipzig publishing house of Ernst Rowohlt, and took it over under his own name in 1912. He hired busy writers such as Walter Hasenclever, Kurt Pinthus and Franz Werfel as lectors, and developed a prominent forum for modern German literature. Trakl's first volume "Poems" appeared in 1913 in a series called "Der jüngste Tag" (The Second Coming), which included the central books of literary expressionism (Kafka, Werfel, Heinrich Mann, Meyrink) . Posthumously in 1915 (with copyright notice of 1914) a second volume of poetry appeared entitled "Sebastian in Dream", followed in 1919 by the complete poetical works edited by Karl Röck. After economic difficulties, the publishing house was liquidated in 1930. Because of the Nazi rise to power Wolff immigrated to the USA, where he could play a role of mediator between the cultures.

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