Famous Poets from Germany

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Updated June 15, 2019 22.9K views48 items

List of notable or famous poets from Germany, with bios and photos, including the top poets born in Germany and even some popular poets who immigrated to Germany. If you're trying to find out the names of famous German poets then this list is the perfect resource for you. These poets are among the most prominent in their field, and information about each well-known poet from Germany is included when available.

John Denver and Charles Bukowski are a great starting point for your to rank your favorites on this list

This historic poets from Germany list can help answer the questions "Who are some German poets of note?" and "Who are the most famous poets from Germany?" These prominent poets of Germany may or may not be currently alive, but what they all have in common is that they're all respected German poets.

Use this list of renowned German poets to discover some new poets that you aren't familiar with. Don't forget to share this list by clicking one of the social media icons at the top or bottom of the page. {#nodes}
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  • Alexios Schandermani
    • Birthplace: Tehran, Iran
    Alexios Schandermani (born October 25, 1953) is an Iranian German writer.
  • Angelus Silesius

    Angelus Silesius

    Dec. at 52 (1624-1677)
    • Birthplace: Wrocław, Poland
    Angelus Silesius (c. 1624 – 9 July 1677), born Johann Scheffler and also known as Johann Angelus Silesius, was a German Catholic priest and physician, known as a mystic and religious poet. Born and raised a Lutheran, he adopted the name Angelus (Latin for "angel" or "heavenly messenger") and the epithet Silesius ("Silesian") on converting to Catholicism in 1653. While studying in the Netherlands, he began to read the works of medieval mystics and became acquainted with the works of the German mystic Jacob Böhme through Böhme's friend, Abraham von Franckenberg. Silesius's mystical beliefs caused tension between him and Lutheran authorities and led to his eventual conversion to Catholicism. He took holy orders under the Franciscans and was ordained a priest in 1661. Ten years later, in 1671, he retired to a Jesuit house where he remained for the rest of his life.An enthusiastic convert and priest, Silesius worked to convince German Protestants in Silesia to return to the Roman Catholic Church. He composed 55 tracts and pamphlets condemning Protestantism, several of which were published in two folio volumes entitled Ecclesiologia (i.e., Ecclesiology). He is now remembered chiefly for his religious poetry, and in particular for two poetical works both published in 1657: Heilige Seelenlust (literally, "The Soul's Holy Desires"), a collection of more than 200 religious hymn texts that have been used by Catholics and Protestants; and Cherubinischer Wandersmann ("The Cherubinic Pilgrim"), a collection of 1,676 short poems, mostly Alexandrine couplets. His poetry explores themes of mysticism, quietism, and pantheism within an orthodox Catholic context.
  • Arno Holz

    Arno Holz

    Dec. at 66 (1863-1929)
    • Birthplace: Kętrzyn, Poland
    Arno Holz (26 April 1863 Rastenburg – October 1929, Berlin) was a German naturalist poet and dramatist. He is best known for his poetry collection Phantasus (1898). He was nominated for a Nobel prize in literature nine times.
  • August Stramm

    August Stramm

    Dec. at 41 (1874-1915)
    • Birthplace: Münster, Germany
    August Stramm (29 July 1874 – 1 September 1915) was a German poet and playwright who is considered one of the first of the expressionists. He also served in the German Army and was killed in action during World War I. He worked in the German Post Office Ministry as a young man and served his mandatory year of duty in the German Army in 1896–97. After this, he travelled to the United States several times over the next few years before settling in Berlin. In 1912–13, he wrote two plays, Sancta Susanna (which was subsequently used as a libretto for an early opera by Hindemith) and Die Haidebraut, the first of many to appear before the war. Stramm was also a reservist in the German Army and had achieved the rank of Captain, the highest available to civilians. He was called to active duty when war broke out in August 1914. In January 1915, Stramm was awarded the Iron Cross (Second Class) for his service in France. Later that year, he was sent to the Eastern Front, where he served as Company Leader, later being promoted to Battalion Commander. He was killed in hand-to-hand combat in Horodec near Kobryn (today Belarus). He was discovered by the critic, editor, and impresario Herwarth Walden, who went on to publish all of Stramm's poems in his journal Der Sturm (The Storm). A collection of Stramm's poems, titled You, was published whilst Stramm was at the front in 1915 and a second, Dripping Blood, was published after his death in 1919. He became a major influence on the poets of the so-called Sturm-Kreis (Storm Circle) which included Otto Nebel and Franz Richard Behrens.English translations of poems by Stramm were published by Patrick Bridgwater (August Stramm, 22 Poems, 1969) and Jeremy Adler (Tim Cross, The Lost Voices of World War I, 1988).
  • Barthold Heinrich Brockes

    Barthold Heinrich Brockes

    Dec. at 66 (1680-1747)
    • Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
    Barthold Heinrich Brockes (September 22, 1680 – January 16, 1747) was a German poet. He was born in Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. He studied jurisprudence at Halle, and after extensive travels in Italy, France and the Netherlands, settled in Hamburg in 1704. In 1720 he was appointed a member of the Hamburg senate, and entrusted with several important offices. Six years (from 1735 to 1741) he spent as Amtmann (bailiff) at Ritzebüttel. He died in Hamburg. Brockes' poetic works were published in a series of nine volumes under the fantastic title Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott (1721–1748); he also translated Giambattista Marino's La Strage degli innocenti (1715), Alexander Pope's Essay on Man (1740) and James Thomson's The Seasons (1745). His poetry has small intrinsic value, but it is symptomatic of the change which came over German literature at the beginning of the 18th century. His libretto Der für die Sünden der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus (1712), also known as the Brockes Passion, was one of the first passion oratorios—a free, poetic meditation on the passion. It was quite popular and was set to music by Reinhard Keiser (1712), Georg Philipp Telemann (1716), George Frideric Handel (1716), Johann Mattheson (1718), Johann Friedrich Fasch (1723), Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1725), and Johann Caspar Bachofen (1759), among others. He was one of the first German poets to substitute for the bombastic imitations of Marini, to which he himself had begun by contributing, a clear and simple diction. He was also a pioneer in directing the attention of his countrymen to the new poetry of nature which originated in England. His verses, artificial and crude as they often are, express a reverential attitude towards nature and a religious interpretation of natural phenomena which was new to German poetry and prepared the way for Klopstock.
  • Bertolt Brecht

    Bertolt Brecht

    Dec. at 58 (1898-1956)
    • Birthplace: Augsburg, Germany
    Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (, German: [ˈbɛɐ̯tɔlt ˈbʁɛçt] (listen); 10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Living in Munich during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes with theatre plays, whose themes were often influenced by his Marxist thought. He was the main proponent of the genre named epic theatre (which he preferred to call "dialectical theatre"). During the Nazi period and World War II he lived in exile, first in Scandinavia and then in the United States. Returning to East Berlin after the war, he established the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife and long-time collaborator, actress Helene Weigel.