If ít were possible to represent the Archangel Gabriel with a tiny blond 'moustache', one would have the portrait of Ludwig Rubiner.

Like Gabriel he had a celestial mission (to follow Tolstoj),

like Gabriel he represented ultimate iustice,

líke Gabriel he had a fiery sword to destroy his enemies.


In his review Zeit-Echo 1917-1919, in Zürích, he became a true «Che-Rubiner» at the same time, in the same town where Dada grew in the name of anti-art.

Carrying his bíg body back and forth through his lodgings, he trumpeted his fury, his suffering, his horror at the insanity of the war and of human suffering.

He migh t have felt the tragic paradox of his mission to attack, to hate, to destroy in the name of love. The more he felt and lived it the more furíous his voice became, the more extreme his demands upon himself.

He díed young, 1920, but before he died, he wrote a play Die Gewaltlosen (Men of Non-violence). There he took the ultimate step, he tried to solve the paradox, to attack, to hate, to destroy in the name of love.

[Hans Richter]


Rubiner fu un interlocutore preziosissimo di Busoni a Zurigo. Nel 1919 ebbe il privilegio di poter abitare nell'appartamento di Busoni, in Victoria-Luise-Platz, 11. Cfr. il mio saggio Die gerade Linie ist unterbrochen sull'esilio di Busoni a Zurigo.