Artist Info: Arno Schmidt

Arno Schmidt (January 18, 1914 in Hamburg - June 3, 1979 in Celle) was a German author and translator.

Schmidt was a strict individualist, almost a solipsist. Disaffected by his experience of the Third Reich he had an extremely pessimistic world view. In Schwarze Spiegel he describes his utopia as an empty world after an anthropogenic apocalypse. Although he was a strict atheist according to him the world was created by a monster Leviathan whose predatory nature was passed on to humans. [read more...]