Frank Wedekind
Frank Wedekind was a provocative German playwright and writer who emerged during the fin de siècle period, known for his controversial themes and characters. Born on July 24, 1864, in Hanover, he had a diverse career that included journalism and working with a circus, which shaped his belief that humans thrive when they live by their instincts. Wedekind's most notable works include "Spring Awakening," a critique of societal repression experienced by adolescents, and the plays "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box," featuring the iconic character Lulu, who embodies sexual desire and ultimately faces tragic consequences.
His theatrical style was innovative, incorporating elements of mime, dance, and heightened emotional expression, positioning his works between naturalism and expressionism. Wedekind's characters often served as caricatures, exploring themes of social alienation and the darker aspects of human nature, and his confrontational dialogue influenced later theater movements, particularly Bertolt Brecht's epic theater. Despite facing censorship during his lifetime, his plays experienced a revival in postwar Germany and were later reexamined in light of the sexual revolution, reflecting changing attitudes toward his themes. Wedekind's legacy remains significant in understanding the evolution of modern drama and the exploration of complex human emotions.
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Subject Terms
Frank Wedekind
German playwright
- Born: July 24, 1864
- Birthplace: Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover (now in Germany)
- Died: March 9, 1918
- Place of death: Munich, Germany
Biography
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (VAY-duh-kihnt), one of the most controversial of fin de siècle German writers, was the son of a world-traveling doctor who, at sixty-four, had married an actress less than half his age. Born in Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover, on July 24, 1864, Wedekind graduated from Lenzburg in Switzerland in 1883. Later he worked as a journalist and as traveling secretary for Herzog’s Circus. While he was with the circus he became convinced that humans are essentially animals who are healthiest when they live entirely by their instincts, uncorrupted by bourgeois education.
After a brief period as secretary to a Parisian art dealer, Wedekind went to Munich and wrote his first play, Der Schnellmaler (the world of youth), the story of a girls’ boarding school. It was followed by Spring’s Awakening, which presents an adolescent youth tormented by sexual drives and ruthlessly curbed by the iron discipline of society—an attempt on Wedekind’s part to out-Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche. He also attacked Henrik Ibsen and the realists of the preceding generation for being too genteel and middle-class. As writer, actor, and director of the Munich Theater, he believed that the stage needed “beasts of prey,” and he proceeded to supply them.
Lulu, the heroine of Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, is a Dionysiac character who becomes sex incarnate and is finally cut down by Jack the Ripper. The hero of The Marquis of Keith conceives of love as a sexual orgy, drives his wife to suicide, tries to build a bawdy house with stolen money but fails, and is abandoned by his mistress. These plays are not simply acted; they are mimed, danced, and screamed, as if Wedekind had Caliban within every character. Toward the end of his career, however, Wedekind reformed, thanked the judges who had condemned Pandora’s Box, and expressed a reverence for the church.
Wedekind’s plays bridge the naturalistic realism of Ibsen and August Strindberg to German expressionism. His characters tend to be caricatures depicting specific ideas and personality types. The confrontations between social outcasts and society, with actors speaking at one another instead of conversing, directly influenced Bertold Brecht’s development of epic theater. Wedekind’s plays were often banned by German censors and were later among those condemned by Adolf Hitler. The postwar German theater revived Wedekind’s plays as curiosities of emotional and imaginative excess; later, the sexual revolution of the late twentieth century resulted in productions based on their sexual politics.
Bibliography
Boa, Elizabeth. The Sexual Circus: Wedekind’s Theatre of Subversion. New York: B. Blackwell, 1987. An analysis of Wedekind’s works that focuses on his portrayal of sexuality. Bibliography and index.
Chick, Edson. Dances of Death: Wedekind, Brecht, Dürrenmatt, and the Satiric Tradition. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1984. Chick examines the use of satire by the German dramatists Wedekind, Bertolt Brecht, and Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Bibliography and index.
Izenberg, Gerald N. Modernism and Masculinity: Mann, Wedekind, Kandinsky Through World War I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Izenberg looks at modernism and masculinity in the pre-World War I works of Wedekind, Thomas Mann, and Wassilly Kandinsky. Bibliography and index.
Jones, Robert A., and Leroy R. Shaw, comps. Frank Wedekind: A Bibliographic Handbook. 2 vols. New Providence, R.I.: K. G. Saur, 1996. A bilingual bibliography on the playwright. Includes indexes.
Lewis, Ward B. The Ironic Dissident: Frank Wedekind in the View of His Critics. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1997. Lewis analyses Wedekind’s dramatic works, focusing on the comments of critics over the years. Bibliography and index.
Skrine, Peter N. Hauptmann, Wedekind, and Schnitzler. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989. Skrine provides criticism and interpretation of the modern German dramatists Wedekind, Gerhart Hauptmann, and Arthur Schnitzler. Bibliography and index.