Karl Hermann Schwarz

Karl Hermann Schwarz-Vanwakeren studied philosophy, physics, and mathematics at the University of Wien, followed by astronomy at the University of Utrecht, although he later went back to Wien. In the 1970s he lived near Zürich. In addition to his work as a teacher and researcher, he wrote poetry, novels and novellas, essays, and radio plays. These included such diverse works as An Atom Experiences the World, a popular science novel, and Those Americans!, a travel novel. But he also published an anthology of Flemish poetry under the title Blossoms from Flanders, translated by himself.

Schwarz-Vanwakeren gave lectures (“What the physicist has to say to the sports fan”) and in 1978 received a patent for a method and device for the presentation of images of spatial objects or figures. After his retirement he occupied himself with the game of chess and published, among others, Chess on New Ways. The poem Putting the Shot, his 1952 entry, is included in the poetry collection World Poetry and new Verses, which was published in 1978 at 161 pages. However, the poem can probably already be found in Man and Space. Knowledge and poetry from 10 languages, published at 128 pages in 1953.