Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 110

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Popular Culture Review
these poems were written. Thereby, they tacitly destroy the idea of historic
progress. However, by combining Iraki’s poems “Nachtlied” and “Ballade” in
one song, as well as by adding to the music satanic laughters, they sharpen
Iraki’s pessimism and give it a satanic twist that is typical of the contemporary
Gothic subculture and its interpretation of early German Expressionism.
Southeast Missouri State University
Independent Scholar
Gabriele Eckart
Kevin Stueve
Notes
1 See Eckart, Gabriele. Stueve, Kevin. “Die Rezeption Georg Irakis und Gottfried Benns
in der Jugendsubkultur.” Die Schatzkammer XXVII (2001): 107-22.
2 According to Christoph Eykman, there is still a poetic ego to be found in one third of
Iraki’s early poems, but only in approximately one sixth of his later poems (97).
3 A typical example are the following two verses from the song “Stem”:
Was ist es was mich dazu bringt
Sobald Menschen mich umringen
Und Worter wie aus Stromen fliefien
In eine Rolle mich zu zwingen
Dass in der Hiille die da scheint
Als ob nur Freude ihr entspringt
Em schwarzes Loch stets um sich greiff
Eine Seel’ urns Uberleben ringt
[What is it that causes me
As soon as there are people around
And