Toller, Ernst (1893–1939), German poet and dramatist, one of the best and most mature exponents of
Expressionism. His first play,
Die Wandlung (
Transfiguration, 1919), written during his imprisonment as a pacifist after being invalided out of the trenches in 1916, is a plea for tolerance and the abolition of war. It was followed by
Masse-Mensch (1920) and
Die Maschinenstürmer (1922). The latter, as
The Machine Wreckers, in a translation by Ashley
Dukes, was seen in London in 1923. It is less Expressionist in technique than
Masse-Mensch, which as
Man and the Masses was produced in New York in 1924 by Lee
Simonson for the
Theatre Guild, and also less pessimistic, since Toller, in the person of his hero Jim Cobbett, foresees the day when the rebellious workers will be an organized and stable body of intelligent men. But Toller's later plays, of which
Hoppla, wir leben! (1927), first produced by
Piscator, was staged in London in 1929 as
Hoppla!, became progressively less hopeful as he watched the decline of freedom in Germany, and in 1933 he left for England and the USA, where he committed suicide on hearing of the outbreak of the Second World War. Among Toller's other plays were
Wunder in Amerika (on Mary Baker Eddy) and
Feuer aus den Kesseln (on a naval mutiny in 1917), both first produced in 1930. The former, as
Miracle in America, was seen in London in 1934, the latter, as
Draw the Fires!, in 1935.
Die blinde Göttin (1932), on a miscarriage of justice, was translated in 1953 as
Blind Man's Buff.
