Gerhard Hauptmann (Hauptmann)

Hauptmann, Gerhard (Hauptmann), (1862-1946), German writer, poet, playwright, patriarch of Germanic literature, Nobel laureate (1912). Born November 15, 1862 in Oberzaltsbrunne, Silesia, the son of the innkeeper. He studied at the Art School in Breslau, Jena. Delivered in the literature in the 80-ies. Celebrity Hauptmann brought drama "Before Sunrise" (1889), which depicts the disintegration of the bourgeois family. Soon Hauptmann became head of German naturalism. In the drama "The driver Henschel (1898), . "Rose Bernd" (1903), . "Rats" (1911) criticism of manners Imperial Germany, . but for this period of creativity Hauptmann more characteristic features of naturalism - absolutisation biological laws, . passivity heroes,
. Subject drama "Weavers" (1892) - Silesian weavers' uprising of 1844. Comedy "Beaver fur coat" (1893) - satire vilgelmovskoy Germany. Along with the kitchen-sink drama Hauptmann wrote verse dramas, fairy tales, marked by the influence of symbolism - "sunken bell" (1896), "Poor Henry" (1902).

In the spirit of irrationalism written drama "Winter Ballad" (1917), "White Savior" (1920), "Indipodi" (1920), as well as the novels "Simpleton Emanuel Quint (1910)," Island of the Great Mother "(1924). Prose Hauptmann, with the exception of the novel "The Heretic of Soany" (1918), inferior to the artistic power of his drama. Hauptmann was one of the few major German writers who remained in Nazi Germany after Hitler came to power. While Thomas Mann and other equally significant cultural figures fled the country, Hauptmann, not wishing to leave, with time becoming increasingly dependent on the Nazi regime. During the period of Nazism, he walked away from the modern view. Posted autobiographical novel "The Adventure of my youth" (1937). In the drama "Daughter of the Cathedral" (1938), "Twilight" (1937, publ. in 1947) tried to engage in polemics with the authorities of the Third Reich. Created dramatic tetralogy on the story of the Greek legend of the Atreidai ( "Iphigenia in Aulis," 1940; "Iphigenia at Delphi," 1941; "The Death of Agamemnon," 1942; "Elektra, 1944). Wrote a poem called "The Great Dream". Hauptmann died in Agnetendorfe June 6, 1946.