biography
| name: |
Grabbe, Christian Dietrich
|
pronunciation:
[grahbuh]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1801–36)
|
| biography:
| Playwright, born in Detmold, WC Germany. In his early years an enthusiast for Shakespeare and the fiery literary movement ‘Sturm und Drang’, he was a precursor of the modern German theatre. Often concerned with historical themes, his writings (considered to mirror boyhood impressions as son of a prison governor) combine realistic and naturalistic-expressionistic elements. His heroes are largely governed by external influences, notably that of ‘das Volk’ (the people), as in Napoleon oder Die Hundert Tage (1831) and Hannibal (1835). Other works include the collected Dramatische Dichtungen (1827), Don Juan und Faust (1829), and Die Hohenstaufen: Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossa (1829), Kaiser Heinrich der Sechste (1830). Plans for further Hohenstaufen dramas were abandoned after the 1830 July revolution. Later works include Aschenbrödel (1835) and Die Hermannsschlacht (1838). He died of consumption following years of alcoholism. |
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