Arno Holz

Holz, Arno 

Born Apr. 26, 1863, in Rastenburg; died Oct. 26, 1929, in Berlin. German writer and literary critic.

With the collection of poems The Book of the Time (1886) Holz demonstrated an interest in sharp social contrasts. Together with J. Schlaf he published the collection of naturalistic short stories Papa Hamlet (1889; Holz used the pen name Bjarne P. Holmsen), the drama The Selicke Family (1890), and the collection of essays New Tracks (1892). Holz formulated the theoretical basis of naturalism in his work Art, Its Essence and Its Laws (vols. 1–2, 1891–92). Phantasus (parts 1–2, 1898–99), which is a narrative poem on cosmogonic themes, and such dramas as The Unknowable (1913) represent a turn to mysticism and expresionism.

WORKS

Werke, vols. 1–7. Neuwied am Rhein-Berlin, 1961–64.

REFERENCES

Istoriia nemetskoi literatury, vol. 4. Moscow, 1968. Pages 241–46.
Mehring, F. “Delo Gol’tsa.” In his book Literaturno-kriticheskie stat’i. Moscow-Leningrad, 1964. (Translated from German.)
Berthold, S. Der sogenannte “Konsequente Naturalismus” von A. Holz und J. Schlaf (dissertation). Bonn, 1967.