GERMAN LITERATURE 207 



is hardly worthy of the author of Buddenbrooks, while Hermann Sudermann (b. 1859) 

 has remained faithful to the French realism of his earlier period in his Das hohe Lied 

 (1908), and the short stories of the volume Die indische Lilie (1911). Gerhart Haupt- 

 mann (b. 1862) has also in the last few years turned seriously to the -novel and published 

 two books, Der Narr in Christo, Emanuel Quint (1911), a powerful reproduction of the 

 gospel story in modern Silesian surroundings, and Atlantis (1912), a novel of little 

 distinctive literary quality. New novels by Jakob Wassermann (b. 1873; Die Masken 

 Erwin Rainers, 1910), and by Arthur Schnitzler (b. 1862; Der Weg ins Freie, 1908), 

 show no conspicuous advance on these writers' earlier work; and the same is true of the 

 recent work of the leading German women writers, Clara Viebig (b. 1860; Kinder der 

 Eifel, 1909); Helene Bohlau (b. 1859; Isebies, 1911); Gabriele Reuter (b. 1859; Das 

 Tranenhaus, 1909). Death has thinned considerably the ranks of the older generation 

 of novel-writers. Hans Hoffmann died on July 1 1, 1909; Hermann Heiberg on February 

 16, 1910; Wilhelm Raabe on November 15, 1910; Friedrich Spielhagen on February 25, 

 1911; Adolf Wilbrandt on June 10, 1911; Wilhelm Jensen on November 24, 1911; Felix 

 Dahn on January 3, 1912. A promising talent in fiction has also been lost by the death 

 of Wilhelm Holzamer (1870-1907). 



The drama remains, as it has always been, the most interesting feature of recent 

 German literature, and the one which reflects most faithfully the movement of ideas. 

 In many ways the chief dramatic writer of the period, Gerhart Hauptmann, is represen- 

 tative of his time. In his work we see precisely that experimental spirit, that want of a 

 definite poetic policy, and one might also add, of strong, dominating ideas, which is so 

 characteristic of contemporary German literature. Since 1909 Hauptmann has hardly 

 added to his reputation as a dramatist; he has written Kaiser Karls Geisel (1908), 

 Griselda (1909), Die Ratten (1910), the latter in his earlier realistic manner, and Gabriel 

 Schillings Flucht (1912), a weak and ineffectual play. These books cannot for a moment 

 compare in incisive power with his early works. Hermann Sudermann, who was 

 Hauptmann's brother-in-arms in the early days of the literary revival, has less to his 

 credit: Strandkinder (1909), and a poetic play, Der Bettler von Syrakus (1912). The 

 latter fails, however, to rise much above the iambic " drama of ideas," as it was culti- 

 vated by Adolf Wilbrandt in the earlier generation. But the last few years have brought 

 a new group of dramatic writers to the front. The leading spirit here is Hugo von 

 Hofmannsthal, who is mainly responsible for the movement which has as its object a 

 renascence of the works and forms of older literatures. One cannot, however, ascribe a 

 like success to his latest original works, Christines Heimreise (1911) and Der Rosen- 

 kai'alier (1911), to the latter of which Richard Strauss has written the music. Arthur 

 Schnitzler has added to his reputation with the fine historical play, Der junge Medardus 

 (1910), and with a modern drama in his old manner, Das iveite Land (1911); Hermann 

 Bahr (b. 1863) has become one of the popular dramatists of the day with his Das Konzert 

 (1909); and Karl Schonherr, a native of Tirol, has won a no less striking popular success 

 with his tragedy, Glaube und Heimat (1910), the broad popular pathos of which is, how- 

 ever, more in evidence than higher literary qualities. The most promising develop- 

 ments of the drama in these years have taken two forms, the first a kind of modern 

 romanticism in classic form, to some extent influenced by Hofmannsthal, and the 

 second, ironic and satiric. To the first group belongs the work of Ernst Hardt (b. 1876), 

 author of Tantris der Nan, which received the Schiller Prize in 1908, without altogether 

 meriting so high an honour, and of Gudrun (1911); further, that of the gifted and promis- 

 ing young dramatist Herbert Eulenberg (b. 1876); but it remains to be seen whether this 

 return to a poetic drama of a traditional type will escape the shallows on which such 

 attempts usually come to grief in Germany. Meanwhile, the most prominent new 

 man in the drama of to-day is a representative of the second form of innovation. This 

 is Frank Wedekind (b. 1864), whose work has in these years been advancing rapidly in 

 popular favour. Wedekind is the most notable product of the " tJberbrettl " move- 

 ment, with which he was formerly closely associated. He is grotesque rather than 

 realistic, a dealer in irony and paradox, a fighter against the disease of excessive " liter- 



