ABSTRACT

In the foregoing account of the rise of Naturalism in Germany I have placed a great deal of emphasis on the success of Ibsen after 1887 and Gerhart Hauptmann after 1889. There is no doubt that these are the most important events of the period under discussion. So far I have virtually overlooked the role of Arno Holz who, as a theorist and practising dramatist, is most closely associated with the style known in literary history as ‘konsequenter Naturalismus’ (consistent Naturalism). Hauptmann dedicated Vor Sonnenaufgang, in its first edition, to ‘Bjarne P.Holmsen [the pseudonym used by Holz and Schlaf], the most consistent realist, author of Papa Hamlet’, and stated that the work of Holz and Schlaf had exercised a decisive influence on him. Subsequently, though, he became distinctly hostile towards Holz (he re-dedicated Vor Sonnenaufgang in its second edition to Brahm and Schlenther) and denied that his influence had ever been decisive. This later view is probably a more accurate one. Even before the publication of Papa Hamlet, in January 1889, Hauptmann was himself already attempting to reproduce accurately everyday speech in his works; Fasching (Siegfried, 1887) and Bahnwärter Thiel (Die Gesellschaft, 1888) had already been published, and Vor Sonnenaufgang had been completed. Papa Hamlet marked a step beyond Hauptmann in terms of realization; but the difference is one of degree rather than kind.