Ball, Hugo

NOVELIST, POET (GERMANY)
BORN 22 Feb 1886, Pirmasens, Rheinland-Pfalz - DIED 14 Sep 1927, Sant'Abbondio, Ticino
CAUSE OF DEATH stomach cancer
GRAVE LOCATION Gentilino, Collina d'Oro, Ticino: Cimitero di Sant'Abbondio, Via in Sacca 1

Hugo Ball studied philosophy and sociology in Munich and Heidelberg. In 1910 he went to Berlin where he became an actor under Max Reinhardt. In the First World War he was refused as a volunteer due to medical reasons. After he saw the battle fields in Belgium during a private trip, he became an opponent of the war. He was now regarded as a traitor and with Emmy Hennings he moved to Switzerland. They married in 1920 and settled in Zurich.

He was one of the founders of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich in 1916, where he wrote and read the Dada Manifesto on 14 July 1916. But it led to conflicts with his friends and within a year he and Emmy left Dadaism. He converted to Catholicism in 1920 and they moved to Ticino where they lived in modest circumstances. He died in 1927 near Lugano.

Family
• Wife: Hennings, Emmy (1920-1927)

Related persons
• was a friend of Hesse, Hermann
• wrote about Hesse, Hermann
• was a friend of Sternheim, Carl
• was a friend of Wedekind, Frank

Images

The grave of Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings at the Cimitero di Sant'Abbondio in Gentilini, Ticino.
Picture by Androom (15 Feb 2019)

 

Sources
Hugo Ball - Wikipedia


Balla, Licci

Published: 08 Apr 2019
Last update: 30 May 2020