Poets of Crisis: August Stramm and Maria Berl-Lee

This work represents Professor Wasserman’s valuable contribution to the legacies of both August Stramm and Maria Berl-Lee. Just because they are no longer alive it does not mean that a vital part of their lives—namely, their writings—should not be passed on in some form, thereby giving successive generations of readers an opportunity to appreciate their stirring poetry. And certainly the poems of both Stramm and Berl-Lee deserve to be appreciated for they provide all readers with some extremely sobering lessons. First, there are the painful poetic reminders from Stramm concerning the dire consequences of World War One; and then we read about the unforgettable horrors and awful results of the Anschluss made quite clear by Berl-Lee’s poetic observations.