SOURCE: “Aspects of Floral Imagery in Gottfried Benn's Poetry,” in Carleton Germanic Papers, Vol. 14, 1986, pp. 1-17.

In the following essay, Bohm discusses the significance of references to flowers throughout Benn's poetry.

Ich muß nun wieder meine dunklen Gärten begehn 

“Lebe wohl—”

To talk of flowers when discussing Gottfried Benn may seem slightly eccentric, whether because such approaches seem quaint in the light of contemporary literary criticism's abstractions, or because other issues might seem more pressing in the case of this poet.¹ An answer to both reservations can only be that the theme was unmistakeably important in Benn's oeuvre. Even a casual reader will be struck by the frequency of references in the poems to specific flowers and to gardens and blooming in general. Against the assumption that floral imagery was only incidental to him, Benn insisted on seeing the very tragedy of existence represented in the fate...