Alfred Lichtenstein was born on 23rd August 1889 in Berlin. He was well educated and graduated with a law degree. However, it appears that law held little appeal but writing short stories and poems did. His early style was to lampoon people and he quickly built a reputation in Berlin as an expressionist writer. He broadened his appeal and became well known for his grotesque style and the controversy surrounding claims that he was imitating his friend Hoddis' work which Lichtenstein had used for a short story featuring himself. Lichtenstein's poems are, at times, distinctly odd but give voice, sometimes very raw and twisted, to a view of the world that is rare today and much rarer then. Alfred Lichtenstein joined the German army and was killed serving in the Battle of the Somme on September 25th, 1914.