Prose and Verse of Alfred Lichtenstein

A Prussian Jew, killed in the second month of the First World War at the ageof 25, 18 years before his father died, apparently of natural causes, and 28years before his mother and two of his siblings were killed by the Nazis,Lichtenstein left no overtly autobiographical writings. Some of his poemsclearly reflect his own painful experiences, both as a civilian and asoldier, and the figure of Kuno Kohn, the hunchback poet whose psychologicalagony informs some of his fiction and a few of his poems, critics agreerepresents their creators grotesque alter ego. His sarcastic remarks aboutlawyers would seem to reflect his own experience as a student of law. Somedrawings and a photograph of him have survived, and his contemporaries wroteabout him sparingly.Most of the attention Lichtenstein has received from posterity so farconcentrates on his poetry, which generally is classified as expressionist.Paratactic, stripped of most rhetorical ornaments, his short fiction,bearing resemblances to Kafka, is at least as strange as his poetry.