Ernst Balcke
- Category : 1887-births
- Type : GP
- Profile : 5/1 - Heretical / Investigator
- Definition : Split - Small (18,34,38)
- Incarnation Cross : LAX The Clarion 1
Biography
German poet who had a fatal accident on 16 January 1912 while skating on the Havel; his best friend, the poet Georg Heym, died trying to save him. They were both aged 24.
The two friends were members of Der Neue Club, a descendant of a student society at the University of Berlin. Other members of this Club included Kurt Hiller, Jakob van Hoddis, and Erwin Loewenson (also known as Golo Gangi); often visiting were Else Lasker-Schüler, Gottfried Benn, and Karl Kraus. Although the Club had no actual stated objective, its members all shared a sense of rebellion against contemporary culture and possessed a desire for political and aesthetic upheaval. The Club held "Neopathetisches Cabaret" meetings in which members presented work.
Balcke occasionally wrote poetry, of which a small selection was published posthumously in 1912 and 1913 in the Expressionist organ Die Aktion. Max Osborn then published Balcke's poems in 1914 in a small volume through the Berlin publishing house Reuss & Pollack.
Ernst Balcke is the title character in the 2014 Berlin novel, Balcke oder Der hypermoderne Prometheus by Antje Göhler.