Herman Gorter

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Herman Gorter.
Herman Gorter.

Herman Gorter (Nov 26, 1864, Wormerveer - Sep 15, 1927, Brussels), was a Dutch poet and socialist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers, a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together in Amsterdam in the 1880s, centered around De Nieuwe Gids (The New Guide).

Gorter's first book, a 4,000 verse epic poem called "Mei" ("May"), sealed his reputation as a great writer upon its publication in 1889, and is regarded as the pinnacle of Dutch Impressionist literature. Gorter rapidly followed this up with a sequel epic poem called "Juni" ("June") and a book of short poetry simply called "Verzen" ("Verses") in 1890, which was equally hailed as a masterpiece.

Gorter shared in common with the Tachtigers an interest in leftist politics, and became the most politically involved of the group, becoming an active writer on socialist theory. He joined the Social Democratic Labour Party (Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij or SDAP) in 1897. In 1909 he participated in a schism from the SDAP to form the Social-Democratic Party (Sociaal-Democratische Partij) of the Netherlands, widely understood to be the world's first communist political party. He wrote a massive new epic poem called Pan in 1912, describing the First World War being followed by a global Socialist revolution. In 1917, he hailed the Russian revolution as the beginning of that global revolution, although he soon afterward came to oppose Lenin.

In 1918 the Social-Democratic Party changed its name to the Communist Party of Holland (Communistische Partij Holland), and in 1919 Gorter left the party. In 1921 he was a founding member of the Communist Workers Party of Germany, joining its Essen Faction and becoming a leading supporter of the Communist Workers International. Gorter died in Brussels in 1927.

He was involved with the Significs group.


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