Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, and art critic, one of the most influential representatives of the Enlightenment in Germany. His plays, including Minna von Barnhelm, Emilia Galotti, and Nathan the Wise, and his theoretical writings such as Laocoön and the Hamburg Dramaturgy, shaped the development of German literature and theatre.

Comparing
Compare

Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

Life events

Born in Kamenz, Saxony
22 January 1729

Lessing was born the son of a Lutheran pastor in the small town of Kamenz in Upper Lusatia.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Studied theology and medicine at the University of Leipzig
1746 – 1748

Lessing enrolled at Leipzig, where he became more interested in literature and the theatre than in his formal studies.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Worked as a critic and freelance writer in Berlin
1748

In Berlin, Lessing supported himself as a reviewer and editor, befriending Moses Mendelssohn and Friedrich Nicolai.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Premiere of Miss Sara Sampson, the first German domestic tragedy
1755

Lessing's Miss Sara Sampson broke with French classical convention and helped establish middle-class tragedy on the German stage.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Published Laocoön, a landmark essay on the limits of painting and poetry
1766

Laokoon became one of the most influential works of aesthetic theory of the eighteenth century.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Became dramaturg of the Hamburg National Theatre
1767 – 1769

As consultant to the new theatre in Hamburg, Lessing wrote the essays collected as the Hamburg Dramaturgy, a foundational work of dramatic criticism.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Appointed librarian of the ducal library at Wolfenbüttel
1770

Lessing became librarian of the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, a post he held for the rest of his life.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Married Eva König
8 October 1776

Lessing married the widow Eva König; she died in January 1778 shortly after the death of their newborn son.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relationship ✓
Published Nathan the Wise, a plea for religious tolerance
1779

Nathan der Weise, with its famous ring parable, presented Lessing's Enlightenment ideal of tolerance among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Died in Braunschweig at age 52
15 February 1781

Lessing died while visiting the wine dealer Angott in Braunschweig and was buried there.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓