French-German poet Yvan Goll: Why did he escape from military service?

CAIRO – 29 March 2022: Yvan Goll, a French-German poet, called by the Germans Sankt Didel [Saint Didel], was born on March 29, 1891, in the city of Sankt Didel, which was a French city until 1871 then became part of the German Empire, but its inhabitants still felt that they belonged to France.

Goll received his education in legal sciences at the University of Strasbourg. He received a doctorate in philosophy in 1912. He deserted military service because of his activism as a peace advocate. 

At the beginning of the First World War in 1914, he immigrated to Switzerland, where he resided in Zurich, Lausanne and Ascona. He went to France and married journalist Claire Aischmann.

At the start of World War II in 1939, he and his wife, Claire Aischmann, fled into exile in New York. After the fall of the Nazis, he returned to France again in 1947.

Goll poetically belongs to the Expressionist Movement. Beginning in 1919, he is considered one of the pioneers of the French Surrealist Movement.

Furthermore, Goll wrote many poetic compositions and many plays. He also wrote a skit called "The Immortal One", which was shown on the stage for the first time in 1924 in Berlin, and wrote the operatic play "Melusine".