SOURCE: Bridgwater, Patrick. “The Sources of Stramm's Originality.” In August Stramm: Kritische Essays und unveröffentlichtes Quellenmaterial aus dem Nachlaßdes Dichters, J. D. Adler and J. J. White, pp. 31-46. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1979.

In the following essay, Bridgwater traces various literary and philosophical influences on the themes, structure, and style of Stramm's poetry.

There are a few essential factors in Stramm's life which no account of the genesis of his poetry can afford to ignore. They include: his emotional personality and interest in painting and music; the nature of his main themes and experiences (love and war); his reading of Hans Vaihinger and knowledge of German Idealist philosophy in general (notably the philosophy of Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche), including some of its mystical or popular-theological developments such as Ralph Waldo Trine's In Tune with the Infinite (1897); his meetings with Walden and Kandinsky and reading of Marinetti...