Kaiser, Georg, << KY zuhr, gay OHRKH >> (1878-1945), was a German Expressionist playwright. His dramas are marked by visions of the renewal and regeneration of humanity. The Burghers of Calais (1914) shows how society can be saved through individual sacrifice. The play established Kaiser as a leading Expressionist playwright.
Kaiser mixed brief, staccatolike language and impassioned, flowery speeches. His characters tend to be types and abstractions rather than individuals. Characters representing specific attitudes appear in his Gas trilogy, which attacks capitalism. The trilogy consists of The Coral (1917), Gas I (1918), and Gas II (1920). Kaiser’s play From Morn to Midnight (1916) made him famous outside Germany. See Expressionism.
Kaiser was born on Nov. 25, 1878, in Magdeburg. When the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933, they banned his plays. Kaiser then moved to Switzerland. He died on June 4, 1945.
