Biography Essay

Georg Kaiser is best known as the leading exponent of German expressionism. Kaiser burst upon the German stage with his play Die Burger von Calais, (published, 1914; translated as The Burghers of Calais, 1970) which premiered in Frankfurt am Main on 29 January 1917. During the heyday of expressionism, Kaiser's Stationendramen (dramas in "stations"), such as Von morgens bis mitternachts (published, 1916; performed, 1917; translated as From Morn till Midnight, 1920), and his vision of modern technology in the Gas trilogy (1917- 1920) were considered the very embodiment of the form and ideas of expressionist drama. But even after the demise of expressionism around 1923 Kaiser's success continued: during the following decade he had the largest number of premieres of any German playwright. He was not only the most widely performed but also the most controversial German playwright during the Weimar Republic, which was cut short in 1933—as was Kaiser's career-when the Nazis silenced...