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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German dramatist, critic, and writer on philosophy and aesthetics. He helped free German drama from the influence of classical and French models and wrote plays of lasting importance. His critical essays greatly stimulated German letters and combated conservative dogmatism.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, (born Jan. 22, 1729, Kamenz, Upper Lusatia, Saxony—died Feb. 15, 1781, Braunschweig, Brunswick), German playwright and critic. After writing several light comedies, he became a theatre critic in Berlin in 1748.

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1729–81) German philosopher, writer, and critic. He revealed his commitment to the German enlightenment in the verse play Nathan the Wise (1779). His other plays include Miss Sara Sampson (1755) and Emilia Galotti (1772), and the critical work Laocoon (1776).

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (January 22, 1729 – February 15, 1781) was a German writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic, was one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His theoretical and critical writings are remarkable for their often witty and ironic style, and he often worked his ...

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature.

Table of Contents. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing - Enlightenment, Dramatist, Critic: Being extremely poor, in 1770 Lessing had no choice but to accept the badly paid post of librarian at Wolfenbüttel, which he had earlier visited in 1766.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, the German dramatist and critic, was born at Kamenz in Saxony. The son of a scholarly Lutheran pastor, he was sent to study theology at Leipzig University. There, however, he absorbed the popular rationalism of the Enlightenment, whose leading contemporary exponent was the Leibnizian Christian Wolff, of Halle.

The enlightenment critic, philosopher, and poet Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born on January 22, 1729, in the Saxonian city of Kamenz. From 1746 on, he studied theology in Leipzig. His literary debut as a writer and critic fell in those years.