Hermann Kasack

Hermann Kasack
Kasack, at the head of the table, PEN-Zentrum 1949
Born	Hermann Robert Richard Eugen Kasack (1896-07-24)24 July 1896 Potsdam
Died	10 January 1966(1966-01-10) (aged 69) Stuttgart
Education	Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Occupation	Writer Literary editor Academic teacher
Organization	S. Fischer Verlag
Works	Die Stadt hinter dem Strom

Hermann Robert Richard Eugen Kasack (24 July 1896 – 10 January 1966) was a German writer. He is best known for his novel Die Stadt hinter dem Strom (The city beyond the river). Kasack was a pioneer of using the medium broadcast for literature. He published radio plays also under the pen names Hermann Wilhelm and Hermann Merten.

Kasack was born in Potsdam as the only child of a doctor, he studied from 1914 to 1920 national economics and history of literature at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

In 1915, he published his first poem in the magazine Die Aktion. Two years later, a lifelong friendship began with both the painter Walter Gramatté, the model for the painter Catell in Die Stadt hinter dem Strom, and the poet Oskar Loerke. In 1918, he released a volume of poems, entitled Der Mensch. Verse, which was his first published book.

He started working as a literary editor in 1920 in the publishing house Gustav-Kiepenheuer-Verlag in Potsdam, where he edited the complete works of Friedrich Hölderlin. From 1925, he worked for the Funk-Stunde Berlin. His drama Die Schwester was premiered in 1926. He was director at the S. Fischer Verlag until 1927. On 28 March 1933, he was prohibited from working for any broadcast. Nonetheless, on 26. Oktober 1933, he signed the Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft declaring loyalty and support for Adolf Hitler.

In 1941, he succeeded Oskar Loerke as literary editor in the S. Fischer Verlag, and took consequently over the direction of the publishing house when Peter Suhrkamp was arrested from 1944.