The work of German author Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871 – 1943) combines the lush cruelty of the French Decadents, the macabre thrills of Edgar Allan Poe, and esoteric, occult philosophy into a heady literary brew. Publishing his horror tales in the years leading up to World War I and through Germany’s tumultuous Weimar Republic, Ewers emerged as a multifaceted artist and highly individualistic person: outspoken thinker, prolific author, vaudeville performer, and early proponent of cinema as a legitimate art form. His novel Alraune, which details the story of a doctor whose theories of mad science and folklore lead to the birth of a completely amoral woman, has been called a “decadent masterwork” and has been adapted for the screen five times.

Ewers would become a prominent figure in the brief flowering of German weird fiction between the World Wars, influencing the establishment of the world’s first fantastical fiction magazine, Der Orchideengarten. However, Ewers’ career–along with that of several of his contemporaries–would turn from lurid fantasies to real-world evil, finding him associated with the Nazi propaganda machine. This lecture explores the work of Ewers as part of the German tradition of horror and fantasy fiction, alongside the historical, social, and political forces that would have an impact on his work and ultimately lead to a collision with one of the most horrific political regimes of the 20th century.