Domin, Hilde (Cologne, 1912- ), studied law, then economics, sociology, and philosophy in Heidelberg, Berlin, Florence, and Rome, and in 1932 began her exile in Italy, moving in 1939 to England, and in 1940 to the Dominican Republic. In 1954 she returned to West Germany, later settling in Heidelberg. It was only now that she began to write poetry to which the experience of exile, the result of her Jewish descent, is central: Nur eine Rose als Stütze (1959), Rückkehr der Schiffe (1962), Hier (1964), Höhlenbilder (1968), and Ich will dich (1970), in which the title-poem, apostrophizing the word ‘freedom’, alerts the reader by means of alienation (supported by an allusion to Freiheit, a patriotic poem by M. von Schenkendorf of 1815) to the ready misuse this and similar words have undergone: ‘Freiheit/ich will dich/aufrauhen mit Schmirgelpapier/…/daß man dich schwer auf die Zunge nimmt/…’ She wrote neither political nor hermetic poetry but made the ‘usefulness’ of a poem to both author and reader her principal concern; poetry should create a new awareness of different levels of perception by aiming at communication based on personal experience. She expounded these views in Doppelinterpretationen. Das zeitgenössische deutsche Gedicht zwischen Autor und Leser (1966) and Lyrik heute. Dichtung und Leser in der gesteuerten Gesellschaft (1968). Her own stringent poetry exemplifies her views which have increasingly been recognized with the award of a number of honours. Her honorary lectureship at Frankfurt University (at the age of 75) had as its subject Das Gedicht als Augenblick von Freiheit (1988). Similar Poetik-Vorlesungen followed at the University of Mainz in 1989-90.

Hilde Domin's prose includes the autobiographical novel Das zweite Paradies. Roman in Segmenten (1968), the story Die andalusische Katze (1971), and the autobiographical volumes Von der Natur nicht vorgesehen (1974) and Aber die Hoffnung. Autobiographisches aus und über Deutschland (1982, reissued 1987). Her editorial work includes the anthology Nachkrieg und Unfrieden. Gedichte als Index 1945-1970 (1970) and a select edition of poetry by Nelly Sachs, Gedichte (1977). Gesammelte Werke appeared in 1988; Gesammelte Essays in 1992.

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