Poeta pojednania. O twórczości Ernsta Josefa Krzywona

This article presents key motifs in the lyrical works of Ernst Josef Krzywon, a German poet, literary historian. and translator of Polish literature. Krzywon was an intellectual of Upper Silesian origin, who struggled with the conditions of a double biography, enhanced by the socalled great history of belonging to two cultural circles. Both in his poetry and in his scientific works and essays, the author born in Rokitnica (a historical part of Zabrze), tries to face the challenge of presenting the cultural heritage of Upper Silesians as the product of meetings between representatives of several nations - as a common work of the German and Slavic peoples. Our article analyzes the main topic of his poems: the multiracial character of the region and its consequences for the individual – especially the necessity to look for national identity in the area between two cultures and two (or even three) languages.