See Also: Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim(encyclopedia)
Lessing, Doris (May)(encyclopedia)
Lessing, Doris(dictionary)
Ephraim(medicine)
Ephraim (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)
Burchfield, Charles (Ephraim)(encyclopedia)
Karo, Joseph ben Ephraim(encyclopedia)
Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center(health)

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (sh)




born Jan. 22, 1729, Kamenz, Upper Lusatia, Saxony
died Feb. 15, 1781, Braunschweig, Brunswick

German playwright and critic.

After writing several light comedies, he became a theatre critic in Berlin in 1748. His play Miss Sara Sampson (1755) was the first German domestic tragedy. After studying philosophy and aesthetics in Breslau, he wrote the influential treatise Laoco?n: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry (1766). Minna von Barnhelm (1767), his finest play, marks the beginning of classical German comedy. He was adviser to the first Hamburg national theatre and published his reviews as essays on the principles of drama in Hamburg Dramaturgy (1767-69). His Wolfenbuttel Fragments (1774-78) attacked orthodox Christianity, arousing great controversy. He also wrote the tragedy Emilia Galotti (1772) and the famous dramatic poem Nathan the Wise (1779).