ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1767, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–81), an esteemed playwright and critic, joined the Hamburg National Theater, an experimental enterprise meant to promote theatrical reform and the legitimacy of German drama. As the theater’s in-house critic, Lessing decided to provide the theater’s patrons with a serial publication, which he named the Hamburg Dramaturgy. As originally conceived, the journal was meant to contribute to discussions of dramatic theory, to assess the work of playwrights and actors, and to educate the taste of the public. In practice, however, the Hamburg Dramaturgy differed considerably from its original conception and quickly ceased to have much association with the theater to which it was ostensibly attached. Although both the journal and theater folded in 1769, Lessing’s discussions of dramatic theory established the Hamburg Dramaturgy as a seminal text of the German theater. This chapter provides a nuanced explication of the original goals and subsequent changes to Lessing’s journal, explains how it can be understood in relation to Lessing’s larger interest in cultural and theatrical reform, and contextualizes its stormy relationship with the short-lived Hamburg National Theater. The chapter also addresses various mythologies surrounding the nature and origins of the Hamburg Dramaturgy that have colored how it has been viewed.
