Choose another writer in this calendar: by name:
A B C D ... Z by birthday from the calendar Credits and feedback Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) Dramatist, aesthetician, and critic, the main representative of the Enlightenment in Germany. Lessing has been called the true founder of modern German literature. His most famous dramas are Miss Sara Sampson (1755), a domestic tragedy, Minna von Barnhelm (1755), a comedy about honor, marriage, and pretense, and Nathan the Wise (1779), set in Jerusalem during the Crusades. "One single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer." (from Minna von Barnhelm Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born in Kamenz, Saxony, where his father, Johann Gottfried Lessing, worked as a Protestant pastor. He was the first of twelve children - five died in childhood. The family had long clerical traditions, and Lessing was expected to become a pastor. He was educated in Meissen at St. Afra's School. In 1746 he entered the university of Leipzig, where he studied theology and medicine. For the disappointment for his family, he devoted himself to writing comedies. Among his friends was his cousin Christolob Mylius, a freethinker. His first play, Der junge Gelehrte (1747) was performed by the acting company of Caroline and Johann Neuber. It was written in the style of Holberg and mocked arrogant students. Lessisng's early career as a playwright was stopped when the acting company left him alone to cover its debts. In 1748 Lessing fled to Wittenberg where he studied at the university and then moved to Berlin. At that time it had a hundred thousand inhabitants and its atmosphere in religious questions was more free than in the provinces, although Fredrick II did his best to suppress political discussion. In a letter Lessing wrote: "But let someone come on the scene who wants to raise his voice on behalf of the rights of subjects and against exploitation and despotism... and you will soon discover which is the most servile land in Europe to this very day." | |
|
