Rolf Hochhuth's plays have received little critical praise: the consensus is that he is incapable of structuring a play, of writing dialogue that is not impossibly wooden, or even of thinking clearly about the kind of aesthetic effect he intends. But whatever their artistic failings, at least three of his plays have had direct social and political consequences of which critical favorites such as Bertolt Brecht or Peter Weiss could only dream. And three have had considerable success with the public, regardless of the critics' strictures, because of their topicality.

Hochhuth was born on 1 April 1931 in Eschwege, east of Kassel, to Hochhuth and Ilse Holzapfel Hochhuth. His father's family had been shoemakers and shoe manufacturers in Eschwege since 1709. After being forced to close his shoe factory in the Depression, in 1932, Hochhuth's father managed his wife's family's wholesale business. The family had liberal leanings in politics, though the young...