author
Gustav Freytag
1816–1895
A leading German novelist, playwright, journalist, and cultural historian, Gustav Freytag shaped both nineteenth-century literature and the way modern readers think about dramatic structure. His work remains closely associated with Soll und Haben, Die Journalisten, and the influential concept known as Freytag’s Pyramid.
1 Audiobook
Sanomalehtimiehet : Nelinäytöksinen huvinäytelmä seitsemässä kuvaelmassa
by Gustav Freytag
About the author
Born on July 13, 1816, in Kreuzburg, Silesia, Gustav Freytag studied philology and German literature at the universities of Breslau and Berlin. He began his career as a university lecturer before turning increasingly to writing for the stage and journalism. His comedy Die Journalisten brought him major recognition, while his editorship of the liberal journal Die Grenzboten established him as an influential public voice.
Freytag became widely known for the novel Soll und Haben and for his five-volume cultural history Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit, which explored German history and everyday life. In 1863, he published Die Technik des Dramas, a study of dramatic structure that introduced the five-part model later called Freytag’s Pyramid.
His writing reflected the liberal, national, and middle-class outlook of nineteenth-century Germany, and some aspects of Soll und Haben are now recognized as antisemitic and historically troubling. Freytag died in Wiesbaden on April 30, 1895.