The development of the artistic personality of the poet and essayist Gottfried Benn (Mansfeld, West Prussia, 1886-Berlin, 1956) is closely related to the family environment (his father was a pastor) and medical studies.
Medical language, he was so close, allowing you to create in his early poems ("Morgue", 1919) atmospheres and images that establish him as one of the founders of the German literary expressionism. In 1917 he published his second book of poems, "Fleisch, written during the First World War.
This collection will make a career in later poetic creation.
Disillusioned Western rationalist thought remain in "Spaltung" (1925) in "Trunkene flut" (1927) inquiring about drunkenness, sleep and primitive structures I to get rid of rationalism and delve into the mythical origins of man and the society. These concerns partly explain the enthusiasm that initially receives the rise to power of Nazism, which will soon become disillusioned and rejected, in turn, by the new power. The breakdown of public engagement in it reinforces the tendency to differentiate clearly art and life; his autobiography "Doppelleben" (1950), describes this split personality conscious sign of modern man.
Starting in 37 developing what will be called "absolute prose" with titles like "Weinhaus Wolf" (1937) "Roman des Phänotyps" (1944) and "Der Ptolomäer" (1947). Then see the light of the poetry books "Statische Gedichte" (1948), "Fragments" (1951), "Destillationen" (1953) and "Aprèslude" (1955, Spanish translation Barjau Eustaquio "Postlude" (Pre-Textos, Valencia, 2001).
Throughout his literary life he wrote many essays, a collection of them, selected and translated by Enrique Ocaña, was published under the title of "modern self" (1999) in this same collection.