Gedichte: Aus dem Alltag

Gedichte: Aus dem Alltag (Poems: From Everyday Life) is a collection of poetry by the German author Otto Müller-Neudorf published in Zagreb in 1942. It is a relatively thin collection of lyrical poems written in German, which draw inspiration from ordinary, everyday life – from natural motifs, city scenes and intimate moments to reflections on the transience and beauty of the ordinary.

Müller-Neudorf was a German writer, translator and cultural activist who lived in the Balkans for a long time. He is best known for his anthology of Bulgarian literatureBlumen aus dem Balkan (1917), but he lived in Zagreb during World War II, where he also published this collection. The poems are mostly of traditional form, melodic and introspective, without strong ideological or propaganda elements, which was unusual for German-language production in the NDH at that time.

The collection reflects the author's attempt to find lyrical peace in everyday life during wartime. The style is close to late Romanticism and Impressionism, with an emphasis on image, atmosphere and inner experience. Today, this edition is a rarity and represents an interesting example of German literary activity in Zagreb during the Independent State of Croatia. The book was printed in a small publishing house and bears witness to the cultural ties between the German language and the Croatian space during that turbulent period.