Ernst Toller's Poems 1918-1921 contain his complete ""Poems of the Prisoners"" and his first play ""Die Wandlung"" (Transformation). Ernst Toller was born in Samotschin, Province of Posen, Prussia in 1893 into a Jewish family. At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for military duty, spent thirteen months on the Western Front, and suffered a complete physical and psychological collapse. His first drama, Transformation (Die Wandlung), was to be inspired by his wartime experiences.