Friedrich Hebbel had to overcome formidable odds to achieve greatness. Not only did he have a most difficult start in life, but he also lived in an epoch that regarded greatness as dangerous and modesty and moderation as virtues. At the beginning of the age of science and technology, the idealistic and spiritual side of life had been replaced with materialistic concerns.

Although Hebbel's misappropriation by the Nazis as a "Nordic" poet and dramatist on the one hand and his rejection by Marxist critics on the other have made him a controversial figure, there is agreement among admirers and critics alike that he was the most significant playwright to follow Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. His poetry, too, though to a lesser degree, commands a place of high regard in the annals of German letters, and a good deal of it is part of the canon...