Carl Sternheim

Born in Leipzig on April 1, 1878, Carl Sternheim became one of the notable German writers associated with Expressionism. He is best known as a playwright and short story writer whose work often mocked the values and pretensions of the rising middle class in Germany.

Reference works describe his style as plain, satiric, and unsparing. He studied at several German universities, including Munich, Göttingen, Leipzig, and Berlin, before fully turning to writing.

Sternheim died in Brussels on November 3, 1942. His reputation rests largely on the way he used comedy and satire to expose social ambition, hypocrisy, and the pressures of bourgeois life.