SOURCE: Bridgwater, Patrick. “August Stramm.” In The German Poets of the First World War, pp. 38-61. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985.

In the following essay, Bridgwater offers a biographical and critical assessment of Stramm's war poems.

August Stramm, a near-sighted dreamer with a sense of duty inherited from his soldier-father (decorated for bravery in the Franco-Prussian war), was born at Münster, Westphalia, in 1874. After a middling performance at school (he subsequently took a degree by part-time study), he entered the German post-office administration in 1893; hard work soon won him promotion. He completed his year's compulsory military service in 1896-7 and within a few years received a commission in the reserve. On being released from the army in spring 1897, he was appointed to a coveted post-office appointment on liners on the Bremen-Hamburg-New York run; this led to several stays in the United States and perhaps also to his...