Gustav Heinse

Gustav Heinse , born Josef K. Klein (1896–1971), was a poet and translator who was mostly active in Bulgaria, where he lived and worked from 1924 until his death.

Biography and work Heinse was born in 1896 in Castelnuovo in the Habsburg monarchy's Kingdom of Dalmatia (today Herceg Novi in the Bay of Kotor, on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro). Heinse's father was an officer in the Austro–Hungarian Army of Bohemian German extraction, while his mother was an Italian. His father's career as an officer meant that Heinse as a first-born son was destined to a military education. He studied at the military schools in Sankt Pölten, Straß and Mährisch Weißkirchen (today Hranice in Přerov District) and graduated from the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt.

While Heinse would continue to translate Bulgarian lyric poetry until the end of his life, he also worked on translations of prose works (e.g. tales by Yordan Yovkov and Angel Karaliychev). Some of his translations were published in German magazines like Westermanns Monatshefte, Die Literatur and Der Türmer or by the German-language Bulgarian press like Der Bulgarienwart, Bulgarische Wochenschau and Sofioter Nachrichten. In 1957, East Berlin-based publisher Volk und Welt released Heinse's translation of Dimitar Dimov's influential novel Tyutyun ("Tobacco"), signed by Heinse under his real name, Josef Klein.