Alfred Lichtenstein

German expressionist writer noted for his 1911 poem "Die Dämmerung" (Twilight). He was first noticed after publishing poems and short stories in a grotesque style, which invited comparison with a friend of his, Jakob van Hoddis. Indeed, there were claims of imitation: while Hoddis created the style, Lichtenstein enlarged it, it was said. Lichtenstein played with this reputation by writing a short story, "The Winner", which describes in a scurillous way the random friendship of two young men, wherein one falls victim to the other. By using false names he often made fun of real people from the Berlin literary scene, including himself as Kuno Kohn, a silent shy boy; in "The Winner" a virile van Hoddis kills Kuno Kohn at the end of the story. Lichtenstein admired the style of the French writer Alfred Jarry not only in his ironic writings, but like him he rode his bicycle through town. However he was not to grow old: he died at the front in World War I, on 25 September 1914, aged 25, near Vermandovillers, Somme, France. Link to Wikipedia biography