Christian Dietrich Grabbe

Christian Dietrich Grabbe was born in Detmold, Germany in 1801. He wrote many historical plays and is also known for his use of satire and irony. He wanted to be Germany's greatest poet, which is probably why he became an alcoholic. He also suffered from an unhappy marriage. He died in 1836. Heinrich Heine saw him as one of Germany's foremost dramatists; he called him "a drunken Shakespeare". Even though Bertolt Brecht wanted to stage Grabbe's "Hannibal", the National Socialists saw Grabbe as the "prototype of the Low German man". The Nazis idolized Grabbe mainly because of his blatant anti-Semitism. Brecht also wrote the play "Baal" as an answer to Hanns Johst's "Der Einsame", a play about Grabbe.

Works

Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung (1827)

Herzog Theodor von Gotland (1827)

Don Juan und Faust (1829)

Die Hohenstauffern (1829/30)

Napoleon oder Die Hundert Tage (1831)

Hannibal (1835)

Die Herrmannsschlacht (1838)