1862 - 1946

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• Birth	15 Nov 1862	Hotel zur Krone, Obersalzbrunn, Kr. Waldenburg, Schlesien (Szczawno Zdroj, Poland)
  Sex	Male
  Died	6 Jun 1946	Agnetendorf (Kr. Jelenia Góra, Poland)
  	Gerhart Hauptmann died at home.
  Buried	28 Jul 1946	Kloster am Hiddensee, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
  	Gerhart Hauptmann was buried in a monk's robe, which he often wore.
  Person ID	I953	Thienemann
  Last Modified	19 Oct 2006
  Father	Robert Hauptmann, b. 1824
  Mother	Marie Strähler, b. 1827
  Family ID	F402	Group Sheet
  Family 1	Johanne Charlotte "Marie" Thienemann, b. 1 Jul 1860, Berlin
  Married	5 May 1885	Hohenhaus, Kötzschenbroda, Kr. Radebeul, Sachsen
  Divorced	1904  [3,4]
  Children	1. Ivo "Ivke" Hauptmann, b. 9 Feb 1886, Erkner, Brandenburg   2. Eckart Hauptmann, b. 1887   3. Klaus Hauptmann, b. 1889
  Family ID	F403	Group Sheet
  Family 2	Marie Marschalk
  Married	18 Sep 1904
  Children	1. Benvenuto Hauptmann, b. 1 Jun 1900
  Family ID	F404	Group Sheet

• Documents		Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), husband of Marie Thienemann (1860-1914) stamped issued by the DDR (East Germany)

• Notes

  (bibliography by Petri Liukkonen): Prominent German dramatist of the early 20th century, Gerhardt Hauptmann won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912. His early naturalistic plays are still frequently performed. Hauptmann was born in Obersalzbrunn (now Szczawno Drój), a fashionable resort in Eastern Germany. His father was the hotel owner Robert Hauptmann and mother Marie (Straehler) Hauptmann. After failing at the gymnasium in Breaslau, Gerhart was sent to his uncle's estate. There he became aware of the Pietism and learned to know the peasants with whom he worked. He then entered the art academy in Breslau, intending to become a sculptor, and studied history at the University of Jena (1882-1883). From 1883 to 1884 Hauptmann studied art in Rome and wrote a romantic poem based on the myth of Prometheus. Ill health forced him to return to Germany. In 1885 he married Marie Thienemann, an heiress to a fortune, whom he had met in 1881, and settled in Berlin. Marie admired her husband, but did not much understand literature and was devastated when Gerhart's attention strayed. However, her wealth gave him the freedom to start his career as a writer. In 1885 he set up a home with his wife in the little lakeside village of Erkner, and became convinced of the anti-romantic and scientific necessity of depicting life as it is. His early stories 'Fasching' (1887) and 'Bahnwärter Thiel' (1988) were naturalistic tales of simply people. In Berlin Hauptmann became in contact with progressive intellectuals, and published his first play, VOR SONNENAUFGANG in 1889, which attracted attention with its shocking realism. In the play, Alfred Loth, a young socialist, sets out to study conditions in the Silesian coal mines. He falls in love with Helene Krause, the sister-in-law of his former college friend, who virtually controls the mines. His friend and his family turn out to be corrupted by the power of money, and Alfred leaves Helene, who kills herself. Hauptmann's early plays reflect the influence of Henrik Ibsen but the production of DIE WEBER, a compassionate dramatization of the Silesian weavers' revolt of 1844, brought him fame as the leading playwright of his generation. The play, taken to be revolutionary when it was merely humane, was first banned. The play showed great sympathy for ordinary people struggling against oppression and hard conditions. In the 1890s Hauptmann wrote DER BIBERPELZ (1893), HANNELES HIMMELFAHRT (1894), in which he began to try to abandon the naturalistic style. FLORIAN GEYER (1896), dealt with the peasant wars of the sixteenth century, and DIE VERSUNKENE GLOCKE (1897) was a story of a struggling artist. After this Hauptman wrote three of what may well be his best plays: the tragedies FURHMANN HENSCHELL (1899), MICHAEL KRAMER (1900) and ROSE BERND (1903).

• Sources

  1. [S28]   Gerhart Hauptmann, Kurt Lothar Tank 2. [S3177]   Interview with Ingeborg Hauptmann 3. [S1953]   Thienemann, Johanne Charlotte, Johanne Charlotte 'Marie' THIENEMANN 4. [S1097]   Hauptmann, Gerhart, Gerhart HAUPTMANN "were divorced in the summer of 1904"