LEISEWITZ, JOHANN ANTON

born May 9, 1752, Hannover, Hanover died Sept. 10, 1806, Braunschweig, Brunswick German dramatist whose most important work, Julius von Tarent (1776), was the forerunner of Friedrich Schiller's famous Sturm und Drang masterpiece Die Ruber (1781; The Robbers). Leisewitz studied law and entered the Brunswick administrative service, in which he rose to high position. His impressive tragedy Julius von Tarent shows Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's, rather than J.W. von Goethe's, influence. The play, treating the favourite Sturm und Drang theme of fratricide, postulated a fundamental conflict between the political state and the individual heart. It exhibits calculated restraint and finely drawn characters. Leisewitz's short dramatic sketches Die Pfndung (1775; The Distraint) and Der Besuch um Mitternacht (1775; The Midnight Visit) pursue the Sturm und Drang trend toward the theme of social injustice, which he had divorced from the tragic conflict in Julius von Tarent.