Gottfried Benn, born 1886 and died 1956, is regarded as one of the most significant poets of Expressionism, that epoch which with its vigorous rejection of traditional forms and themes stands on the threshold of literary modernism – as well as being one of the greatest 20th century German lyric poets.
In time to mark the 'Double Benn Anniversary' in 2006 (50th anniversary of his death and 120th of his birth) de Gruyter is publishing Christian M. Hanna's Benn-Bibliographie, which provides the first comprehensive survey of international secondary literature on Benn from 1957 to 2003, and contains more than 2500 entries.
For many years, Benn scholars have felt a keen lack of an authoritative bibliography, and the gap has now been filled by this clearly structured and user-friendly work, the first personal bibliography for well-nigh 50 years, and the only one to register the extensive literature published on Benn and his work since his death. It includes publications not only in German, but also in other Germanic languages (incl. Norwegian, Danish and Dutch) and Romance languages (incl. Italian, French and Spanish) and from the whole English-speaking world. Swift and efficient searching is facilitated by a tripartite index – a detailed index by titles of works, containing over 470 headwords and references to Gottfried Benn's works, an equally detailed index of names and subjects with 515 lemmas, and an index of periodicals.
These features make the Benn-Bibliographie an indispensable tool for everybody interested in Gottfried Benn, be they literary scholars, students at school and university or Benn enthusiasts among the reading public.