German literature

German authors
  • Angelus Silesius
  • Heinrich Böll
  • Bertolt Brecht
  • Karl Georg Büchner
  • Hans Magnus Enzensberger
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • Günter Grass
  • Brothers Grimm
  • Hans von Grimmelshausen
  • Peter Handke
  • Gerhart Hauptmann
  • Heinrich Heine
  • Heinrich der Glïchezäre
  • Johann Gottfried von Herder
  • Hermann Hesse
  • Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
  • Friedrich Hölderlin
  • Uwe Johnson
  • Siegfried Lenz
  • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
  • Thomas Mann
  • Robert Musil
  • Novalis
  • Jean Paul Richter
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling
  • Friedrich von Schiller
  • Arthur Schnitzler
  • Georg Trakl
  • Frank Wedekind
  • Christa Wolf

Karl Georg Büchner, 1813-1837

A German playwright, Büchner was born in Goddelau. While he was studying Medicine he was forced to go into exile in Switzerland due to his radical political activities. There, while he taught Anatomy, he began writing his biting and pessimistic works. He died of typhus at the early age of 24 years.

His most important legacy are three writings that would influence the later development of German theater: Danton's Death (1835), Woyzeck (1836), which was left unfinished at the time of his death and the satirical comedy Leonce and Lena (1835).

Despite the fact that these works were never played out during the author's lifetime, they had a strong influence on German theater that followed, anticipating naturalist drama - with his concern for the poor and the oppressed; and expressionism, which would go on to reflect the disillusion of artists and intellectuals after World War I.