Tor's Poetry

Tor's poetry has recently been discovered, and it transpires that he started to write as a youth, from the early 1900s. Tor wrote poetry in German and French, and illustrated his poems with Jugendstil decorations, as was typical of the time.

Following the First World War in the 1920s, Tor wrote a great deal of poetry. Up to and including this period, he wrote classical forms of poetry, such as sonnets and poems in which the lyrics rhymed. However, he continued to write poetry all his life, and his lyrics always reflected the style of the respective time.

In the early 1980s, when Tor was around 94, he bound up many of his poems into book-binding folders and sent them to a range of Germany's top publishing houses, hoping for publication. It is the first indication that we have that Tor undertook to publish his poetry. Unfortunately, each and every publisher rejected his work.

Tor's poetry is direct, striking, powerful and in some cases, unusual. During each era of his writing, the poems would probably have been considered avant garde. For this reason, we have not translated them and some of his poetry will be shown here in its original form.
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"Erinnerung" - a poem describing a memory from the First World War written by Tor in the 1920s. He describes how he is in a dugout, and goes outside into the light to catch a louse. The sun was up, it was spring and the air smelled magical. But in the trench, the noise of shells, the mines and the bombs is deafening. Just one lark is soaring up to the sky, the only being who can be free in this landscape. And while he is up to his neck in earth in the trench, the lark flies up without fear, following its desire.

Erinnerung
Ich ging ans Licht um eine Laus zu fangen
Ins Freie trotz der dicken Luft
Die Sonne war in Schönheit aufgegangen
Der Frühling sandte zauberischen Duft.

Im Graben fuhr das Heulen der Granaten
Der Minen dumpfes Brausen lauter fort
Die Bomben fuhren in die jungen Saaten
Die Menschenstille unterbrach kein Wort.

Nur eine Lerche stieg mit Tirillieren
In diesem Sonnenhimmel auf
Als Einzige von Menschen und von Tieren
Nahm sie gewohnt, doch wiedersinnig ihren Lauf.

Und während ich bis über meine Stirne
Im Graben in der Erde blieb
Flog furchtlos sie hinauf in helle Firne
Wie ein Gebet befolgend seinem Trieb.

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"Die Heimat" was written in February 1928 and describes the general feeling of despair rife in Germany at the time, during the Weimar Republic. We went to war in '14, Tor says, to protect our homeland from the enemy, and gave everything we had. When we returned home, our houses were occupied, there was no money, we were not able to have our own four walls when we married. My wife has a child, I wait at the corner for her, unemployed, and we have to return to live with our parents. In our homeland.


Die Heimat
Im Jahre 14 sind wir hinausgezogen
Um die Heimat zu schützen vor dem Feind
Freiwillig sind wir ihm entgegengeflogen
An allen Grenzen haben wir uns vereint
      Für die Heimat.

Fremde Dörfer wurden zum Raub der Flammen
Gegen jeden Sturm erhob sich unser Gewehr
Fremde Städte brachen schreiend zusammen
Wie eine Mauer setzten wir uns zur Wehr
      Für die Heimat

Unversehrt standen bei uns die Häuser am Ende
Aber sie waren, als wir heimkehrten besetzt
Wenn man heiratet braucht man seine vier Wände
Doch wir wurden von einem zum anderen gehetzt
      In der Heimat

Meine Frau kam im Krankenhaus nieder
Arbeitslos stand ich am Eck und erwartete sie
Mit dem Kind gingen wir zu den Alten wieder
Eine Wohnung bekommen wir nie.
      In der Heimat.