In the 1920s Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer was perhaps the leading German historical novelist. His major works, above all the Paracelsus trilogy (1917-1925), had a large readership; but his plays and novels attract little attention today. The plays fall into two groups: dramatic equivalents of his grandiose historical novels and plays on a domestic scale dealing with modern themes. His confidence in his powers as a dramatist was misplaced, though his best scenes show the same sensitivity, commitment, and talent as the best chapters of his novels.

Kolbenheyer was born on 30 December 1878 in Budapest to Franz Kolbenheyer, an architect, and Amalie Hein Kolbenheyer. After Franz Kolbenheyer's death in 1881 his widow returned with Erwin Guido and his sister, Leonie, to Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia), where her family lived. Kolbenheyer had a private tutor for two years before attending the local school; at eleven he transferred to the Lateinschule (Latin...