Hermann Sudermann

Sudermann, Hermann (1857–1928), German novelist and dramatist, whose first play, Die Ehre (Honour), was produced with great success in 1889. He became the main exponent of the new theatre of realism in Germany, much influenced by Ibsen, as can be seen in Das Glück im Winkel (Happiness in a Quiet Corner, 1896) and Johannsfeuer (The St John's Eve Fire, 1900). The play by which he is chiefly remembered is Heimat (1893), which provided a popular melodramatic vehicle for many famous actresses, including Duse and Bernhardt, who both played it in London at the same time in 1895. As Magda, in a translation by Louis N. Parker, it was first seen in English in 1896 at the Lyceum Theatre with Mrs Patrick Campbell in the title-role, a part played in 1923 by Gladys Cooper and in 1930 by Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. It was produced in New York in 1904 and revived in 1926.

Hermann Sudermann , 1857-1928, German dramatist and novelist. His play Die Ehre (1889; tr. Honor, 1906) was one of the first successes of the burgeoning German naturalist movement. Sudermann's works became immensely popular, particularly the psychological novel Frau Sorge (1887; tr. Dame Care, 1891) and the play Heimat (1893; tr. Magda, 1896), a vehicle for Sarah Bernhardt and for Mrs. Patrick Campbell. His finest drama is probably Fritzchen, one of the three one-act plays published in Morituri (1897); it portrays the harshness of the Prussian officer code. Many of Sudermann's plays and such novels as Es war (1894) and Das hohe Lied (1908; tr. The Song of Songs, 1909) effectively bare the crudity and immorality of the Prussian aristocracy and the corruption of Berlin society.