Büchner, Georg, << BUK nuhr, gay OHRK >> (1813-1837), a German writer, is considered a forerunner of the Naturalism movement of the late 1800’s. His dramas Danton’s Death (written in 1835) and Woyzeck (written from 1835 to 1837) are distinguished by starkly realistic language. They are filled with disillusionment about Büchner’s own time and pessimism about the world in general. According to Büchner, people cannot shape their fate. They are victims of uncontrollable forces and thus entirely helpless.
Büchner also wrote Leonce and Lena (written in 1836), a dark comedy dealing with boredom and dread of the unknown. Büchner’s short novel Lenz is largely a study of a man going insane. It was begun in 1835 and published in 1839, after the author’s death on Feb. 19, 1837, from a sudden illness, probably typhus, at the age of 23.
Büchner was born on Oct. 17, 1813, in the German state of Hesse. As a student, he coauthored The Hessian Courier (1834), a pamphlet calling for the overthrow of the Hessian government. Büchner fled to the city of Strasbourg to avoid imprisonment.
