Hanns Heinz Ewers

The Profile

Hanns Heinz Ewers (born 1871 in Düsseldorf; died 1943 in Berlin) was a German writer central to the German-Austrian revival of horror and fantastic literature. He authored the Frank Braun trilogy (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Alraune, Vampir), wrote an influential 1905 essay on Edgar Allan Poe, and contributed to the expressionist film The Student of Prague. A prolific traveler, he was imprisoned in the United States during World War I. His later years were marked by a conflicted relationship with National Socialism.

Born in Düsseldorf in 1871; died in Berlin in 1943. Wrote a 1905 essay on Edgar Allan Poe. Key themes include occultism, decadent aesthetics, grotesque and deviant eroticism, and the femme fatale. Created the Frank Braun cycle (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Alraune, Vampir). Associated with the screenplay of The Student of Prague. Traveled widely and was imprisoned in the U.S. following the outbreak of WWI. His relationship with the Nazi regime was conflicted and he was later rejected by it.

Three reviews celebrate Ewers’s decadent, occult-tinged horror. Alraune is praised as essential dark fantasy; The Spider is hailed as a must-have classic; Immaculata gathers late stories plus Ewers’s 1905 Poe essay. Themes include femme fatale, sadomasochistic undertones, and the Frank Braun cycle, alongside his link to The Student of Prague.