Bauchwitz, Kurt, 1890-1974

Kurt Israel Bauchwitz was born in Halle (Saale), Germany on July 12, 1890. Kurt exhibited a talent for writing at an early age and published his first serious writing piece at the age of fourteen. From 1921 to 1938 Bauchwitz practiced law in Berlin. In 1926 he received the appointment of Notar (notary), the appointment later terminated by Hitler in 1936. His right to practice law was terminated and was forced to close his Berlin law office in November 1938. On December 16, 1938 Bauchwitz married Hilde Michaelis. Just prior to his departure from Hitler's Germany in 1939, Bauchwitz was baptized as a Catholic. After several months, Bauchwitz, his new wife, and two sons arrived in Japan, where they remained for nearly eighteen months before their eventual departure for the United States in 1940. During this time, he collected many of his earlier poems and epigrammatic verse to form the collection he called the Abzieh-Bilderbuch. In addition, he wrote over 200 poems, later entitled his Tokyo poems, which would also be the last significant collection of poetry in German he would write. After arriving in the United States Bauchwitz legally changed his name to Roy C. Bates. Bates continued to write during the 1950s and 1960s, however, his writing took the form of semi-autobiographical observations, which he recorded on a regular basis. Three series of these collections of observations, the first series entitled Pebbles and the later two entitled Quotation Marks, make up the bulk of his writing activity during this time. Bates also became interested in the legal aspects of psychedelic drugs during the 1960s, which resulted in his participation in the M.I.T.-based Neurobiological and Psychedelic Study Group, as well as publication of an article on Psychedelics and the Law. Bates died in Milton, Massachusetts on July 18, 1974.