Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
born Jan. 12, 1751, Sesswegen,
Livonia, Russia
found dead May 24, 1792, Moscow
Russian-born German poet and
dramatist of the Sturm und Drang (Storm
and Stress) period, who is considered an
important forerunner of 19th-century
Naturalism and of 20th-century
Expressionistic theatre.
Lenz studied theology at Königsberg
University but gave up his studies in
1771 to travel to Strasbourg as a tutor
and companion to two young barons von
Kleist. In Strasbourg he became a member
of Goethe’s circle and was strongly
influenced by the Sturm und Drang
sentiments of that group of dramatists.
Lenz made his reputation with plays from
the Strasbourg years, an eccentric
didactic comedy, Der Hofmeister oder
Vortheile der Privaterziehung (published
1774, performed 1778, Berlin; “The
Tutor, or the Advantages of Private
Education”), and his best play, Die
Soldaten (performed 1763, published
1776; “The Soldiers”). His plays have
dramatic and comic effects arising from
strong characters and the swift
juxtaposition of contrasting situations.
Anmerkungen übers Theater (1774;
“Observations on the Theatre”) contains
a translation of Shakespeare’s Love’s
Labour’s Lost and outlines Lenz’s
theories of dramaturgy, summarizing
conceptions of theatre that he shared
with other members of the Sturm und
Drang movement. These include contempt
for classical conventions, particularly
the unities of time and place, and a
search for utterly realistic depiction
of character.
Consumed by the ambition to become
Goethe’s equal, Lenz made himself
ridiculous by imitating both Goethe’s
writing style and his personal life in
Strasbourg and at court in Weimar, where
Lenz followed Goethe in 1776. His
eccentricities were thought to be
harmless and amusing until a tactless
parody angered Duke Charles Augustus,
who therefore expelled Lenz from the
court in disgrace. Lenz, showing signs
of mental illness, was eventually placed
in the care of the Lutheran pastor
Johann Friedrich Oberlin. (These weeks
in Oberlin’s household supplied the
material for Georg Büchner’s novella
Lenz [1839].) Lenz later returned to
Russia, spending the remaining years of
his life in aimless drifting and poverty
and, eventually, in insanity. He was
found dead in a street in Moscow.
