Claire Goll

Who was Claire Goll?

Claire Goll was a German-French writer and journalist. She was the spouse of Yvan Goll.

In 1911 she married the publisher Heinrich Studer and lived with him in Leipzig. In May 1912 she gave birth to her daughter Dorothea Elisabeth. In 1916 she emigrated in protest of World War I to Switzerland, where she studied at the University of Geneva, was engaged in the peace movement, and began to work as a journalist. In 1917 she met the poet Yvan Goll with whom she became engaged. At the end 1918, she had an affair with Rainer Maria Rilke and they were friends until his death. In 1918 she debuted as a writer with the poetry collection Mitwelt and the novella collection Die Frauen erwachen. In 1919, she went with Yvan to Paris and they married in 1921. Her short stories, poems, and novels also appeared in French. She wrote her poetry collections Poèmes d'amour, Poèmes de la jalousie and Poèmes de la vie et de la mort together with her husband as a "shared song of love".

The pair, both of Jewish origin, fled from Europe to New York in 1939, but returned in 1947. Yvan died in 1950. From then on, Goll dedicated her work to her husand. Her autobiographical novels Der gestohlene Himmel and Traumtänzerin did not receive much attention. However, her battle with Paul Celan over copyright and plagiarism, known as the "Goll Affair" caused a significant stir.