About This Site

K. Ungeheuer was born in 1908 in Berlin and wrote short pieces of surreal, strange, and often horrifying short fiction. Educated early in life by the Golden 20's Berlin art scene, Ungeheuer was influenced heavily by the Dada movement. Experimenting with terse prose, Ungeheuer published his first work in Kurt Schwitter's prestigious journal "Merz" in 1926.

He and his wife fled Germany as Hitler rose to power, finding exile first in Sweden and then New York City. As a mathematics teacher, he developed a concept called Numerolinguistics that explored the relationship between math and language and published two short experimental fiction books before dying in a hit-and-run accident in 1988.

My journey with Ungeheuer started when I happened across a somewhat abused copy of Die Kunst des Mittelalters (The Art of the Middle Ages) in the used book bin of my local public library. It was missing 80% of the pages and taped together with masking tape. But the apparent love that someone put into taping this decaying corpse of a book together attracted me (the fact that it was the 50¢ bin didn't hurt either).

I instantly fell for the short prose and the creepy, weird vignettes. It reminded me of the short fiction of Kafka, Borges, and Barry Yourgrau. Unfortunately attempts to find more work by the author failed miserably.

Then "The Internet" happened. Eventually, I crossed paths with people also interested in Ungeheuer, but they had similar problems finding information. However, each of us seemed to have something that was new to the rest. Together we formed a collection pool of Xerox copies, fax paper, fire-damaged books, water-stained magazines, and digital scans.

The Cockroach of the Dada Movement is the first time Ungeheuer's work has been back in print since the 1960s. It covers his writings from the 1920s through the 1970s, including several previously unpublished works and rare magazine reprints covering his Numerolinguistic theory merging math and language.

We hope that by reviving interest in Ungeheuer's work, we will open the doors further on the unique Ungeheuer treasures that remain undiscovered. If you know of any Ungeheuer works not found in this collection, please get in touch with us at: info@cockroach.org

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