Biography
Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), born in Obersalzbrunn in Silesia, was the defining German naturalist playwright and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912. His breakthrough came with Vor Sonnenaufgang (1889), which shocked Wilhelmine audiences with its frank depiction of alcoholism and heredity. His masterwork Die Weber (1892), portraying the 1844 Silesian weavers' uprising, is one of the most powerful collective protagonists in world drama. Other major plays include Der Biberpelz (1893), Fuhrmann Henschel (1898), Rose Bernd (1903), and Die Ratten (1911). Hauptmann also composed epic poetry, novels, and—controversially—continued publishing under both the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, though his compromises with Nazi cultural politics have marked his reputation. He died in Agnetendorf in 1946 during the Silesian population transfers, aged eighty-three.
On Stagelog
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