GERHART

HAUPTMANN (1862— )  , German dramatist, was born on the 15th of November 1862 at Obersalzbrunn in Silesia, the son of an hotel-keeper . From the village school of his native place he passed to the Realschule in Breslau, and was then sent to learn agriculture on his uncle's farm at Jauer . Having, however, no taste for country life, he soon returned to Breslau and entered the art school, intending to become a sculptor . He then studied at Jena, and spent the greater part of the years x883 and 1884 in Italy . In May 1885 Hauptmann married and settled in Berlin, and, devoting himself henceforth entirely to literary work, soon attained a great reputation as one of the chief representatives of the modern drama . In 1891 he retired to Schreiberhau in Silesia . Hauptmann's first drama, Vor Sonnezzaufgang (1889) inaugurated the realistic movement in modern German literature; it was followed by Des Friedens-.fest (1890), Einsame Mensclzen (1891) and Die Weber (1892), a powerful drama depicting the rising of the Silesian weavers in 1844 . Of Hauptmann's subsequent work mention may be made of the comedies Kollege Crampton (1892), Der Biberpelz (1893) and Der rote Hahn (1901), a " dream poem," Hannele (1893), and an historical drama Florian Geyer (1895) . He also wrote two tragedies of Silesian peasant life, Fuhrmann Henschel (1898) and Rose Berndt (1903), and the " dramatic fairy-tales " Die versunkene Glocke (1897) and Und Pippa tanzt (1905) . Several of his works have been translated into English . Biographies of Hauptmann and critical studies of his dramas have been published by A . Bartels (1897); P .

Schlenther (1898); and U . C . Woerner (2nd ed., 1900) . See also L . Benoist-Hanappier, Le Drame naturaliste en Allemagne (1905) .