Sorge, Reinhard Johannes

Sorge, Reinhard Johannes (1892–1916), German poet, who began as a disciple of Nietzsche and fell, a devout Catholic, in the First World War. His most important play Der Bettler (The Beggar), written in 1912 but not performed until 1917 in a production by Reinhardt, was a drama of social protest which foreshadowed the revolt of youth against the older generation and the striving for a higher spiritual orientation, two of the most insistent themes of Expressionism. The structure of the play is determined by the subject-matter: the main character's inner development provides the sole link in a series of loosely connected episodes. The script specifies the use of sophisticated spot lighting, then in its infancy, to effect changes within composite settings. The plays he wrote after his conversion to Catholicism are on mystical and religious themes—König David (pub. 1916) and Der Sieg des Christos (pub. 1924).