Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born in 1729 in Kamenz, in Saxony, the son of a Lutheran pastor. He studied in Leipzig, became close to actors, then lived by his pen in Berlin as a critic and journalist. Secretary to General Tauentzien in Breslau during the Seven Years' War, in 1767 he became the appointed critic of the Hamburg National Theatre, then in 1770 librarian to the Duke of Brunswick at Wolfenbüttel. His critical writings reject the rules of French tragedy in favour of a re-read Aristotle and of Shakespeare. He died in Brunswick in 1781.

In the catalogue 1

• TheatreNathan the WiseNathan der WeiseGotthold Ephraim Lessing · 1779Literature