Vormorgen : The Collected Poems

Vormorgen aims to collect all of Ernst Toller's poetic works in a single volume; the first to appear in nearly a century.

This edition, in German and English, includes Toller's three principle poetic works: Vormorgen, The Poems of the Imprisoned, and The Book of Swallows, as well as his scattered, uncollected poems.

Toller was a Jewish anarchist working in Munich, and was briefly the president of the Bavarian Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik / Munich Worker's Republic), which was predominantly organized by poets and playwrights, so it's often been referred to as the regime of coffeehouse anarchists.

The occupation began peacefully, with the anarchists occupying Munich without firing a shot, but was ended brutally a month later, on May Day, when the Freikorps were sent in. Over 600 people were killed, half of which were citizens killed in street fighting. Some were sentenced to death by firing squad, others were sentenced to prison. Ernst Toller was sent to Niederschönenfeld prison for five years, where he began working on the majority of his poems. When he was released, he was exiled to the UK, and later to the States. While living in New York, he received word that his mother and sister were sent to concentration camps, and he took his life in 1939.

Ernst Toller (1893-1939) was a Jewish anarchist working in Munich, and briefly served as the president of the Bavarian Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik / Munich Workers' Republic), which was predominantly organized by poets and playwrights, also known as "the regime of coffeehouse anarchists." When the monarchy collapsed in November, Toller helped to organize the Bavarian Soviet in Munich and led street troops against the Freikorps and shock troops sent to the suppress the uprising. He was arrested for high treason and sentenced to five years in prison, which he first spent in the correctional facility in Munich (Stadelheim) before he was transferred to Niederschönenfeld in 1920. While in prison, he authored multiple plays and wrote two volumes of poetry, Gedichte der Gefangenen / Poems of the Imprisoned (1921) and Das Schwalbenbuch / The Book of Swallows (1924). After his release he was forced into exile from Germany due to mounting tensions of the Nazi regime. Upon receiving word that his mother and sister had been sent to concentration camps, he committed suicide in his room at the Mayflower Hotel in New York on May 22, 1939.

Mathilda Cullen is a poet and translator. She is a central committee member of Woe Eroa, a press dedicated to printing and developing an explicitly Marxist, militant poetics. Her works include Vormorgen: The Collected Poems of Ernst Toller (The Operating System, 2021) and Stanzas for Four Hands: An Ophanim with Dominick Knowles (woe eroa, 2021), The Horizon is a Kettle: Notes on the Negative Lyric. Find more of her at mathildacullen.com or being annoying on social media.