„Was bleibt vom Heldentum?“ Klandestine Autorschaft in Klabunds chinesischen Nachdichtungen "Dumpfe Trommel und berauschtes Gong" (1915)

The internationality of the expressionist avant-garde, which has been frequently underestimated by scholars, is above all evidenced by the extensive body of translations of the socalled expressionist decade (1910-1920). During First World War translation became a strategic medium for pacifist writers to mark their distance from prescribed patriotism. This phenomenon is perhaps best described as ›clandestine authorship‹. It characterises also one of the most productive translators among the Expressionists, Alfred Henschke, known as Klabund (1890-1928), and his anthology of Chinese war songs, Dumpfe Trommel und berauschtes Gong (Muffled Drum and Intoxicated Gong, 1915). The aim of the present paper is to examine exemplarily this anthology and to show how Klabund in the disguise of his translator role distances himself from his earlier war-affirmative poetry. The following paper thus provides a contribution to the study of expressionist translation during World War I, to the internationality of the German avant-garde and to the changing attitude of German intellectuals from war enthusiasm to war criticism.