links between german and catalan literature have always tended to be scarce. recently, the berlin-barcelona connection has allowed for a  certain opening, though avantgarde german poetry in a written form still remains unknown here. this poetry reading, therefore, is an attempt to bring it closer following a selection of works made by valeri scherstjanoi, christian atanasiu and enric casasses,  which range from christian morgenstern to ernst jandl, no doubt a rather personal than historical choice,

among pre-avantgarde poets, that is, those who were forerunners in the programmatic ideals of the avantgarde poets, we find two key figures in the german scene: christian morgernstern and paul scheerbart. christian morgernstern (1871-1914), born in munich in a family of painters and subject to constant moving from one city to another, is nowadays one of the most popular german poets of the first half of the twentieth century. his early years in literary circles when he followed the trends of the moment (devotion for nietzsche, translator of ibsen, author of a sentimental and metaphysical literature...) were not that successful, rather, he became popular thanks to his witty work which represented a minor part of his whole opus. morgernstern not only stands out for his sharp sense of humour but also for the innovation he introduced to his poems. his two best known pieces are the phonetic poem “das grosse lalulla”  written in 1890 though not published until  1905 and “ fisches naschtgesang” (the nocturnal song of the fish) , a visual poem in which the word is dismissed  and replaced by metric signs of quantity (which allow for  a sound reading). “ fisches nachtgesang”  is an anticipation of the dadaistsí negation of language (cf.: “lautgedicht”  by man ray, 1925), of phonetic and visual poetry, coupled with an admirable sense of humour. according to doctor jeremias mueller (1871-1914) it was the most profound poem in the whole of german poetry. in 1897, paul scheerbart, a contemporary of morgernstern, published “ich liebe dich! ein eisenbahroman” (i love you! a railroad novel) with 66 intermezzi, among which the phonetic poem “ kikakoku!”. scheerbart died some years later due to the hunger strike he underwent to protest against the outbreak of the first world war.

but the developement of theories on phonetic poetry was to come later, with the advent of dadaism. hugo ball, in zurich and raoul hausmann in berlin began to work, each one on their own and without knowing each other, on a new way of making poetry that anihilated traditional language, indeed, that was phonetic poetry, regularly performed and based on theorical substance. the first steps were taken by hugo ball in 1916 in the cabaret voltaire with poems such as “karawane” and “ gadji beri bimba”, which included dressing-up and performance elements. at the same time, raoul hausmann was developing in berlin his optic-phonetic poems, inspired by italian futurists. only when he read ballís phonetic poems published in almanach dada in that same 1916 year, did he realise he was not the inventor of phonetic poetry. nevertheless, we must highlight an essential difference: while ball worked  on words without meaning, hausmann went far beyond working on random combinations of letters (often being print types), i.e.: directly with sounds as is the case for  poems “fmsbw” and “kp erioum” , thus not allowing for the possibilty of creating a new language.

hausmannís “ fmsbw” was the seminal piece of “ ursonate or sonate mit urlauten” (sonata with primigenius) written in 1923 by kurt schwitters, the most successful work of the the whole dadaist phonetic production. it is a 45-minute piece structured as if a musical sonata in four movements with a totally fixed score. a piece of major importance that schwitters was able to publish ten years after, during his exile in england. in barcelona we have regularly had the chance to hear the exceptional version performed by pere sousa along with other poems by schwitters, such as “ anna blume”  as well as some dancing poems.

the first important outbreak of avantgarde performances within the post-war germanic scene took place in vienna in the 1950s: a group of poets and creators under the name of  die wiener gruppe, active mainly during the period 1954-1960. in this group we find some of the main figures of post-war german avantgarde poetry such as gerhard r¸hm, konrad bayer, hans carl artmann, friedrich achleitner, friederike mayrˆcker and oswald wiener. their contributions, all strongly influenced by dadaism, are numerous: they iniciated the poetic act (der poetische act), precursor of the poetic performance theorized by artmann and later on by r¸hm; they linked avantgarde practices with jazz, which by that time was the popular music; they introduced the vienese dialect in avantgarde written poetry, an element also used by jandl and more recently,  by ide hintze, sustaining an uncomfortably political stand, both clearly pacifist and contrary to the rearment of austria of 1955, coherent with the dadaist anti-belicist ideals.

concommittantly, we find echoes of this in the german concrete poetry movement. in 1944, the city of basel organises the first concrete art exhibition. pierre schaeffer introduces the concept to music and in 1951, the swedish poet and artist ˆyvind fahlstrˆm, applies it to concrete poetry. it is however one year later when the term acquires  full weight and an international resonance thanks to the brasilian group noigrandes integrated by augusto de campos, haroldo de campos and d”cio pignatari. the bolivian-born swiss poet eugen gomringer was also a major contributor to the expansion of concrete poetry. between 1954 and 1958 he was secretary to max bill at the hochschule f¸r gestaltung, in ulm, and there he met pignatari with whom he established the essentials of the group premises which would later on acquire international weight. gomringerís poetry attempts to erase both, national and superfluous traits, in order to reach universal and more instant reading hues. “konstellationen”, his first book of concrete poetry was published in bern, in 1953 and a year later his manifest “vom vers zur concrete poesie”.  in 1959 he founded his own publishing house, the dynamising chore of the movement and in those years, germany was to become the main centre for concrete poetry at international levels. the circle of darmstadt, integrated by claus bremer, the u.s.a. expatriate emmet williams and romanian-born daniel spoerri published in 1957 the first international anthology of concrete poetry and thanks to the efforts made by max bense and hansjˆrg mayer, stuttgart was also to become a focal point of the  international network of concrete poetry.

franz mon (frankfurt, 1926) is another name tied to german concretism however more related to graphism and to a certain rebuttal of readability which approximates him rather to the fine arts. his is a “surface poetry”, a legacy from mallarm”, in line with gomringerís constellations. He stands for a return to visual significance which poetry had somehow forfeited given the standardisation which meant the printing press.mon sees writing as a visual process and not as a reproduction of sound. in a similar vein but perhaps more isolated, we find carlfriedrich claus, known in the 1950s. one of his most outstanding pieces “letternfeld” (field of the arts) i a kind of composition made up with either typed vowels or vowels and consonants which would later become sound experiences.

as regards ernst jandl (vienna, 1925-2000), he is one of the most popular and most personal authors of the german postwar avantgarde literature, much as joan brossa to catalan literature. both, for exemple, experimented freely with words and a strong political commitment, particularly as far as anti-militarism is concerned. from 1954 onwards, jandl was in touch with the vienese experimental poets of the 1950s such as gerhard rühm, h.c. artmann, friederike mayröcker and friedrich achleitner. in 1956 he began his experimental work and, overall, his opus can be deemed as diverse, ranging from concrete poetry to sound and visual poetry, as well as textual constellations, drama and sound games such as “lichtung”  and “schtzngrmm” (an anti-military poem), the latter making him very popular. he was influenced both by expressionism and dadaism and also by the vienna group and concrete poetry but never adscribed formally to either. bartomeu ferrando is one of the poets who has most reivindicated his work and, to conclude this brief, helmut heissenbüttel (1921-1996),  a jandl contemporary, deserves a mention as another experimental poet who didn’t belong to any school.

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