Jahnn, Hans Henny [key], 1894–1959, German novelist, dramatist, music publisher, and organ builder. Jahnn's early dramas, including Pastor Ephraim Magnus (1919) and Medea (1926), were laden with sexual-pathological images. Among his later novels, of greater substance, are Thomas Chatterhorn (1955) and a trilogy, Fluss ohne Ufer [shoreless river] (1949–50; tr. Vol. I, The Ship, 1961), which explores the dangers of delving into the secrets of creation. Jahnn also published 17th-century organ music and gained an international reputation as a builder and renovator of organs.
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