biography
| name: |
Lessing, Gotthold (Ephraim)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1729–81)
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| biography:
| Playwright and man of letters, born in Kamenz, E Germany. After studying theology at Leipzig University, he worked as a translator, then continued his studies at Wittenberg (1751). The first German playwright of lasting importance, he introduced blank verse to German drama, producing his classic tragedy Miss Sara Sampson in 1755. While secretary to the Governor of Breslau, he wrote his famous Laokoon (1766), a critical treatise defining the limits of poetry and the plastic arts. His Minna von Barnhelm (1767) was the first German comedy on the grand scale. In 1769 the Duke of Brunswick appointed Lessing as Wolfenbüttel librarian, and in 1772 he wrote another great tragedy, Emilia Galotti, followed by Nathan der Weise (1779), a powerful plea for balance and tolerance, making him an eloquent German proponent of the Enlightenment. |
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