born May 3, 1761, Weimar, Saxony
died March 23, 1819, Mannheim, Baden
German playwright.
He helped popularize poetic drama, which he infused with melodramatic sensationalism and sentimental philosophizing. Prolific (he wrote more than 200 plays) and facile, he is known for works such as the dramas The Stranger (1789) and The Indian Exiles (1790) and the comedies Der Wildfang (1798; "The Trapping of Game") and Die deutschen Kleinstädter (1803; "Small-Town Germans"). He was denounced by political radicals as a spy and stabbed to death.