Hanns Heinz Ewers (born November 3, 1871 in Düsseldorf, Germany) was a
German writer famous for his short stories and novels that expanded the
parameters of the horror genre. He began his literary career as a poet
when he published "A Book of Fables", satirical verses, in 1901. In
addition to writing, he was an actor and created a vaudeville theater
the same year he made his literary debut. He also founded another
acting company that toured Central and Eastern Europe, but he abandoned
the theater due to censorship.
It was his stories about the occult and horror that made his name. His
first novel "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" was published in 1910 and his
masterpiece, "Alarune", in 1911. The two novels were part of a trilogy
based on the autobiographical character of Frank Braun, who also
appears in the 1921 novel "Vampyr".
Ewers was deeply attracted to the philosophy of
Friedrich Nietzsche, and the
Nietzschean philosophy of the "intellectuals" of the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, as well as their
nationalism (to say nothing of their mysticism) attracted him to the
Nazi Party, though he never joined it. Though he wrote a novel based on
the life of Nazi martyr Horst Wessel,
allegedly at the bequest of Adolf Hitler,
his works were banned by the Nazis in 1934.
A penniless Hanns Heinz Ewers died from tuberculosis on June 12, 1943
in Berlin. He was 72 years old.
