Expressionist (Expressionism) poet, playwright, and novelist who influenced German literature with his adaptations and translations of Oriental literature. Notable among his free, imaginative renderings of Chinese, Japanese, and Persian literature are Li-tai-pe (1916), Lao-tse (1921), and Der Kreidekreis (1924; The Circle of Chalk), a drama that inspired the German playwright Bertolt Brecht (Brecht, Bertolt) to write his play Der kaukasische Kreidekreis (The Caucasian Chalk Circle).

A consumptive who spent many years in sanatoriums, Henschke identified with the eternally seeking wandering poet and called himself Klabund, a name derived from Klabautermann (“hobgoblin”) and Vagabund (“vagabond”). Restlessness and versatility characterize his work. He composed poetry in a variety of forms, and he created a new prose form, the “Expressionist novella.” Notable in this genre are his autobiographical “novels of longing,” with themes of sickness and love; biographical “novels of passion,” with sensual portraits of historical figures (e.g., Pjotr, 1923; Peter the Czar); and his greatest achievements in prose, two “novels of fulfillment”—Bracke (1918; Brackie, the Fool) and Borgia (1928; The Incredible Borgias).