Else Lasker-Schüler was a leading Expressionist poet and one of the most prominent women writers of the early 20th century. She has been described by Karl Kraus as "the greatest lyric poet of modern Germany." Lasker-Schüler lived the life of a bohemian, sharing the artistic milieu of post World War I Berlin with friends such as Franz Marc and Gottfried Benn. When the Nazi government took power, Lasker-Schüler, witnessing soldiers attacking a Jewish apartment, immediately boarded a train to leave Germany. After short stays in other parts of Europe, her last years were spent in Israel, where she aligned herself with experimental writers celebrating their Jewish heritage. Else Lasker-Schüler's (1869-1945) most noted collections are Hebrew Ballads (1913) and My Blue Piano (1943).