Georg Trakl

Georg Trakl (1887–1914) was an Austrian lyric poet and an important early Expressionist writer. Born in Salzburg, he first worked as a pharmacy apprentice and studied pharmacy in Vienna. He subsequently held short-lived positions in pharmacies, ministries, and the military. From 1912 onward, his poems were published in Ludwig von Ficker’s Innsbruck journal Der Brenner, which played an important role in promoting his work. During the First World War, Trakl served with a medical unit in Galicia. After the Battle of Gródek, he was transferred to Kraków for observation of his mental state, where he died in November 1914.