A lost child, a fairy tale or folk song come to life, sweet and creepy at the same time—this is how Franz Herwig characterized the literary phenomenon of Emmy Hennings in 1923. In 1916, she opened the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich with Hugo Ball, where the Dada group rebelled not only against the war but also against art itself. Hennings' novel "Gefängnis," published in 1919, caused a great stir. In a compelling, expressive language, she dissects the experience of incarceration down to the linguistic details. The reader is presented with an existential urgency of what it means to be in prison. The relationship between delinquency and punishment, guilt and atonement occupied Hennings for many years. This is evidenced by her two other prison texts, "Das graue Haus" and "Das Haus im Schatten." The genesis and impact of the three novels are discussed in the appendix.