Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, << GOHT hohlt AY frah ihm >> (1729-1781), was a German playwright, critic, and philosopher. Lessing helped free German writing from neoclassical French influences. He turned the attention of German writers to English literature, especially the works of Shakespeare. Lessing introduced English middle-class tragedy into Germany with his dramas Miss Sara Sampson (1755) and Emilia Galotti (1772). His play Minna von Barnhelm (1767) is one of the greatest German comedies. It was the first German play with a German background of that time. Its sentimental but realistic style influenced German popular theater throughout the 1800’s.
While serving as a theater critic in Hamburg, Lessing wrote The Hamburg Dramaturgy (1767-1769). The work began as reviews of performances. It later became a series of essays in which Lessing discussed the drama of his time in relation to Aristotle’s principles for tragedy. In his essay Laokoon (1766), Lessing discussed the relationship between poetry and painting. The essay is basic to classical German ideas of beauty.
Lessing was the first German playwright to put a sympathetic Jew on stage in The Jews (1749). His final drama, Nathan the Wise (1779), is his testament on religious tolerance. His Education of the Human Race (1780) also pleads for tolerance. It was one of the first German essays on the philosophy of history. Lessing was born on Jan. 22, 1729, in Saxony. He died on Feb. 15, 1781.
See also German literature (The Enlightenment).
