Most of the best-known World War I poets fought for Allies, but there were also several talented writers who served with the Central Powers nations. Perhaps the most influential was August Stramm, a German officer who is now considered a pioneer in the Expressionist movement. Stramm fought in dozens of battles across both the Eastern and Western fronts, and he captured the primal nature of warfare in short, staccato poems that often feature abstract imagery and one or two-word lines. “A star frightens the steeple cross,” reads one work titled “Guard-Duty.” “A horse grasps smoke / iron clanks drowsily/ mists spread / fears / staring shivering / shivering.” Stramm’s courage under fire won him the Iron Cross in early 1915, but he was killed later that year during hand-to-hand fighting in Eastern Europe. His war poetry was published posthumously in 1919 under the title “Dripping Blood.”
