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Hugo Ball


(Edited from Wikipedia)


Hugo Ball was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry.

At the beginning of World War I, he tried joining the army as a volunteer, but was denied enlistment for medical reasons. After witnessing the invasion of Belgium, he was disillusioned, saying: "The war is founded on a glaring mistake -- men have been confused with machines."

Considered a traitor in his country, he crossed the frontier with the cabaret performer and poet Emmy Hennings, whom he would marry in 1920, and settled in Zürich, Switzerland. There, Ball continued his interest in anarchism and in Mikhail Bakunin in particular; he also worked on a book of translations of works by Bakunin, which never got published. Although interested in anarchist philosophy, he nonetheless rejected it for its militant aspects, and viewed it as only a means to his personal goal of socio-political enlightenment.
In 1916, Hugo Ball created the Dada Manifesto, making a political statement about his views on the terrible state of society and acknowledging his dislike for philosophies of the past that claimed to possess the ultimate truth.
The same year as the Manifesto, in 1916, Ball wrote his poem "Karawane," a poem consisting of nonsensical words. The meaning, however, resides in its meaninglessness, reflecting the chief principle behind Dadaism.

Some of his other best known works include the poem collection 7 schizophrene Sonette, the drama Die Nase des Michelangelo, a memoir of the Zürich period Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary, and a biography of Hermann Hesse, entitled Hermann Hesse. Sein Leben und sein Werk (1927).

As co-founder of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, he led the Dada movement in Zürich and is one of the people credited with naming the movement "Dada," by allegedly choosing the word at random from a dictionary. His companion and future wife, Emmy Hennings, was also a member of Dada.
 His involvement with the Dada movement lasted approximately two years. He then worked for a short period as a journalist for Die Freie Zeitung [de] in Bern. After returning to Catholicism in July 1920, Ball retired to the canton of Ticino, where he lived a religious and relatively poor life with Emmy Hennings.
He contributed to the journal Hochland during this time. He also began the process of revising his diaries from 1910 to 1921, which were later published under the title Die Flucht aus der Zeit (Flight Out of Time). These diaries provide a wealth of information concerning the people and events of the Zürich Dada movement. He died in Sant'Abbondio, Switzerland, of stomach cancer on 14 September 1927.


Opening Manifesto, the first Dada evening
(Opening Manifesto of the 1st Dada Evening)
Zurich, July 14, 1916

Dada is a new art direction. You can tell that by the fact that no one knew anything about it so far and that Zurich will talk about it tomorrow. Dada comes from the Lexicon. It's terribly easy. In French it means hobby horse. In German: Addio, please go down my back, goodbye another time! In Romanian: 'Yes, truly, you are right, it is so. Yes, really. Do we'. And so on.
An international word. Just a word and the word as movement. It's just terrible. If you make an art movement out of it, it must mean that you want to take away complications. Dada psychology, Dada literature, Dada bourgeoisie and you, dearest poets, who you have always written with words, but never the word itself. Dada world war and no end, Dada revolution and no beginning. Dada you friends and also poets, most valuable evangelists. Dada Tzara, Dada Huelsenbeck, Dada m'dada, Dada mhm 'dada, Dada Hue, Dada Tza.


How do you attain eternal bliss? By saying Dada. How do you become famous? By saying Dada. With a noble gesture and with decency. To the point of insanity, to the point of unconsciousness. How can you dismiss everything that is basky and journalistic, everything nice and preppy, everything moralized, vertical, graced? By saying Dada. Dada is the world soul, Dada is the highlight, Dada is the best lily milk soap in the world. Dada Mr. Rubiner, Dada Mr. Korrodi, Dada Mr. Anastasius Lilienstein.
In German, this means that hospitality in Switzerland is to be valued above all else, and aesthetics depend on the norm.

I read verses that have nothing less to do than: to avoid language. Dada Johann Fuchsgang Goethe. Dada Stendhal. Dada Buddha, Dalai Lama, Dada m'dada, Dada m'dada, Dada mhm 'dada. It depends on the connection and that it is interrupted a little beforehand. I don't want words that others made up. All words were invented by others. I want my own nonsense, and vowels and consonants that match it. If a vibration is seven cubits long, I want to add words that are seven cubits long. Herr Schulze's words are only two and a half centimeters.

Now you can see how the articulated language is created. I just drop the lute. Words appear, shoulders of words; Legs, arms, hands of words. Au, oi, u. You shouldn't let too many words come up. A verse is the opportunity to get along without words and without language if possible. This damned language, to which dirt sticks like from broker hands that have grabbed the coins. I want to have the word where it ends and where it starts.

Every thing has its word; there the word itself became a thing. Why can't the tree be called Pluplusch, and Pluplubasch if it rained? And why does it have to mean anything at all? Do we have to hang our mouths everywhere? The word, the word, the pain in this place, the word, gentlemen, is a public matter of the highest order.