Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold (Sesswegen, Livland, 1751-92, Moscow), the son of a pastor who rose to be a Generalsuperintendent, spent his school-days in Dorpat, and studied theology at Dorpat and Königsberg universities. While a student he published his first work, Die Landplagen (1769), a poem in Klopstockian hexameters dealing with catastrophes in rural life. In 1771 he took up a post as tutor and companion to two young barons von Kleist and settled with them in Strasburg, where they took commissions in the French army.
In Strasburg, Lenz became friendly with Goethe, and absorbed the ideas and attitudes of the Sturm und Drang. The free translations Lustspiele nach dem Plautus für das deutsche Theater and Lenz's first original play, the eccentric didactic comedy Der Hofmeister, as well as his theoretical manifesto Anmerkungen übers Theater appeared in 1774. Lenz had a tendency to fall in love with women connected with other men. At Strasburg he unsuccessfully courted Friederike Brion, whom Goethe had forsaken in 1771. He fell in love with Cleophe Fibich, who had been the fiancée of one of the Kleist brothers, and in 1775 he believed himself to be deeply in love with Henriette von Waldner, an aristocratic lady; she was engaged, and scarcely knew of Lenz's existence. In the same year Lenz was recommended to Goethe's married sister, Cornelia Schlosser, at Emmendingen. He was irresistibly attracted to Goethe's orbit, following him in 1776 to Weimar, where his tactless and provocative eccentricity led to his expulsion.
Lenz had by now passed the zenith of his creativity as a writer. His mental powers flagged and he showed symptoms of derangement, from which he was not to recover. Upon leaving Weimar he went to stay with C. Kaufmann in Switzerland, where he also visited Lavater. But in January 1778 Kaufmann put Lenz in the care of Oberlin, a pastor in Waldersbach in the Steintal. After less than three weeks Oberlin realized that he could not help him and sent him to Strasburg. For a short period he was looked after by Schlosser in Emmendingen while arrangements were being made to send him to Riga, where his family reluctantly received him back. Three years later Lenz went to Russia, first to St Petersburg and then to Moscow, where he was found dead in the street on a May night, eleven years after leaving his Baltic homeland.
Lenz's best work, the play Die Soldaten, which reflects some of his experiences in Strasburg, was published anonymously in 1776. His dramatic works also include the comedies Die Freunde machen den Philosophen and Der neue Menoza (both 1776), Der Engländer (1776), a play connected with his love for Henriette von Waldner, and Die sizilianische Vesper. Ein historisches Gemälde (1782, in Liefländisches Magazin der Lektüre). The literary satire Pandämonium Germanikum, written in 1775 in dramatic form, was published in 1819. Lenz also wrote some short narrative works, including Der Waldbruder (published by Schiller in 1797), which is also linked with Fräulein von Waldner, Zerbin (1776), and Der Landprediger (1777), which is inspired by his contact with Oberlin. Numerous dramatic fragments were published long after his death. Among them may be mentioned Henriette von Waldeck oder Die Laube (written 1776, published 1884, and again concerning his feelings for the remote noblewoman) and Catharina von Siena. Ein Künstler-Schauspiel, originally described as ‘Ein religiöses Schauspiel’ (1884). The MS. of Freundschaft geht über die Natur oder Die Algierer, a play long believed to be lost, was discovered in Hamburg in 1971. Die moralische Bekehrung eines Poeten, an imaginative account of Lenz's relationship with Cornelia Schlosser (see Goethe, Cornelia), was published in 1889.
In Dichtung und Wahrheit (Bk. 14) Goethe dwells on Lenz's instability; but G. Büchner's Novelle Lenz (written 1835-6) gives a more sympathetic insight into Lenz's character and aims, particularly his rejection of classical conceptions, his search for realism, and his advocacy of Shakespeare as a model for an epically conceived theatre. The Naturalists rescued Lenz at the end of the 19th c. from the neglect into which his work had fallen, and it can be seen that he was an important forerunner, not only of Naturalism, but of the Expressionistic and epic theatres of the 20th c.
Lenz's works were first collected by L. Tieck in Gesammelte Schriften (3 vols., 1828). Gesammelte Schriften were edited by F. Blei (5 vols., 1909-13), and Gesammelte Werke by R. Daunicht (4 vols., 1967 ff.). The letters were edited by K. Freye and W. Stammler (Briefe von und an J. M. R. Lenz, 2 vols., 1918, repr. 1969). Lenz also wrote poems, mostly published in magazines. They are included in the collected works and published separately in Gedichte (ed. H. Haug, 1968). Werke und Briefe (3 vols.), ed. S. Damm, appeared in 1987.
