Gottfried Benn (May 2, 1886 – July 7, 1956) was a German author and poet. He was born in Mansfeld , Prignitz, the son of a Protestant pastor, and lived most of the time in Berlin, practising as a specialist for venereal diseases.

Benn started as an expressionist author before World War I; he published a small collection of poems (Morgue und andere Gedichte ["Morgue and other poems"], 1912).

He served as a medic during World War I, then moved to Berlin and practised as a skin and venereal disease specialist. Other than working for a little while as a ship's doctor, he remained for most of his life in Berlin.

He died in Berlin in 1956, and was buried in Dahlem Waldfriedhof , Berlin.

Edition

• Sämtliche Werke ("Stuttgarter Ausgabe"), ed. by Gerhard Schuster and Holger Hof, 7 volumes in 9 parts, Stuttgart 19??-2003.