Biography
Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz was born in 1751 in Sesswegen, Livonia, and died impoverished in Moscow in 1792. He studied theology in Königsberg, attending lectures by Immanuel Kant, and joined the circle around the young Goethe in Strasbourg in 1771. In 1776 he briefly followed Goethe to Weimar but was soon cast out; years of instability followed, including a stay with the pastor Oberlin in Alsace, and a severe mental illness from 1778 onward. With plays such as Der Hofmeister, Die Soldaten and Der neue Menoza, along with theoretical writings on drama, he became one of the leading figures of Sturm und Drang; he spent his final years in poverty in Moscow, where he was found dead in the street in 1792.
On Stagelog
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