Wilhelm Schmidtbonn was active in German theater, but only a few of his plays were performed with success. Today neither his prose nor his dramatic works are part of the German literary canon or theatrical repertoire. As early as 1930 the literary critic Werner Mahrholz complained that Schmidtbonn's plays were not appreciated; he called Schmidtbonn a truly German writer whose time would come. In 1978 Irmgard Wolf also suggested that he would be recognized one day.

Schmidtbonn's oeuvre includes plays, novels, stories, fairy tales, radio dramas, autobiographical accounts, and theater critiques. His period of relative success started around 1910 and waned in the mid 1920s. He belonged to the school of expressionist playwrights who dealt with strong emotions and ecstatic visions. His name has also been associated with postexpressionism and neoromanticism. It is difficult to link him firmly to any one literary tradition because of his strong individualism. Because he excelled...