LESSING, GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM

born Jan. 22, 1729, Kamenz, Upper Lusatia, Saxony died Feb. 15, 1781, Braunschweig, Brunswick German dramatist, critic, and writer on philosophy and aesthetics. He helped free German drama from the influence of classical and French models and wrote the first German plays of lasting importance. His critical essays greatly stimulated German letters and combated conservative dogmatism and cant while affirming religious and intellectual tolerance and the unbiased search for truth. Additional reading Siegfried Seifert, Lessing-Bibliographie (1973), a comprehensive bibliography; Smmtliche Schriften, ed. by his brother C.G. Lessing, J.J. Eschenburg, and C.F. Nicolai, 31 vol. (17711825), the first volumes of which were published during Lessing's lifetime; Gotthold Ephraim Lessings smmtliche Schriften, ed. by Karl Lachmann, 3rd ed. by Franz Muncker, 23 vol. (18861924, reissued 1968), a standard and complete historical-critical edition; Lessings Werke, ed. by Julius Peterson and Waldemar Von Olshausen, 25 vol. (1925), likewise a complete edition. Erich Schmidt, Lessing: Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften, 4th ed., 2 vol. (1923), a complete biography written in the positivistic method; Theodor W. Danzel and G.E. Guhrauer, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: sein Leben und seine Werke, 2nd ed. rev. by W. Von Maltzahn and R. Boxberger, 2 vol. (188081), a basic work, complementary to Schmidt; Ilse Graham, Goethe and Lessing (1973), seeks the sources of their inspiration; Henry B. Garland, Lessing: The Founder of Modern German Literature, 2nd ed. (1962), compressed and to the point; Paul Rilla, Lessing und sein Zeitalter (1960; reissued 1977), the first total presentation from a Marxist viewpoint; Karl S. Guthke, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 3rd ed. (1979), an important study; Francis J. Lamport, Lessing and the Drama (1981), a study of the tension between the modern content and the classical form of his drama.