author
Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
1751–1792
A restless and original voice of the Sturm und Drang era, this Baltic German writer helped push German drama toward a rawer, more modern style. Best known for plays like The Tutor and The Soldiers, his work still feels strikingly alive.
8 Audiobooks
Die Soldaten
by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Der Hofmeister
by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Der Waldbruder, ein Pendant zu Werthers Leiden
by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Vertheidigung des Herrn Wieland gegen die Wolken, von dem Verfasser der Wolken Deutsche Litteraturdenkmale des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, No. 121, Dritte Folge No. 1
by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Der Dichter Lenz und Friedericke von Sesenheim Aus Briefen und gleichzeitigen Quellen; nebst Gedichten und Anderm von Lenz und Göthe
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, James Macpherson
Der Engländer
by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Zerbin, oder die neuere Philosophie
by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Der Landprediger
by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
About the author
Born in Livonia in 1751, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz became one of the notable writers of the German Sturm und Drang movement. He studied in Königsberg, later spent time in Strasbourg, and moved in the same literary circles as Goethe during his early career.
Lenz wrote plays, poems, and prose, but he is most remembered for his dramas The Tutor and The Soldiers. His writing often turns away from polished ideals and focuses instead on social pressure, emotional conflict, and the damage done by rigid class and moral codes. That sharp, unsettled energy is one reason later readers saw him as far ahead of his time.
His life was troubled, and after periods of instability and hardship, he died in Moscow in 1792. Though he was long overshadowed by some of his contemporaries, Lenz is now widely valued as a daring dramatist whose work helped open the way to modern theater.