Max Halbe was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 dramatist and main exponent of Naturalism

Naturalism (literature)

Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...

.

Halbe was born at the manor of Güttland

Kozliny, Pomeranian Voivodeship

Koźliny is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Suchy Dąb, within Gdańsk County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Suchy Dąb, south-east of Pruszcz Gdański, and south-east of the regional capital Gdańsk.For details of the history of...

 (today Koźliny) near Danzig

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

 (Gdansk), where he grew up. In 1883 he started to study law at the University of Heidelberg and obtained his doctorate at the University of Munich in 1888. After that he moved to Berlin, where he publicated his primary work "Jugend" (youth) in 1893, which was next to Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...

´s "Die Weber" the most successful contemporary stage play in Germany. 1895 Halbe went to Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 again, where he founded the "Intime Theater für dramatische Experimente" (intimate theater of dramatic experiments) and was a co-founder of "Münchner Volksbühne" - theater. He was an important member of the Munich artist society and a friend of Frank Wedekind

Frank Wedekind

Benjamin Franklin Wedekind , usually known as Frank Wedekind, was a German playwright...

 and Ludwig Thoma

Ludwig Thoma

Ludwig Thoma was a German author, publisher and editor, who gained popularity through his partially exaggerated description of a Bavarian workday....

.

In 1933 and 1935 his biography "Scholle und Schicksal" and "Jahrhundertwende" were published.

Halbe died in the age of 79 at his manor house in Neuötting

Neuötting

Neuötting is a town in the district of Altötting, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Inn, 2 km north of Altötting, about 70 km north of Salzburg, 80 southwest of Passau and almost 100 km east of Munich. It is a stop on the railway line between Munich and Simbach.-Townscape:Neuötting...

, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

.

Today Halbe as a dramatist is almost forgotten and his works are rarely acted at theaters.

Works

• Ein Emporkömmling (1889)
• Freie Liebe, Drama (1890)
• Der Eisgang, Drama (1892)
• Jugend, Drama (1893)
• Mutter Erde, Drama (1897)
• Haus Rosenhagen, Drama (1901)
• Der Strom, Drama (1904)
• Blaue Berge, Komödie (1909)
• Der Ring des Gauklers, Ein Spiel (1911)
• Die Tat des Dietrich Stobäus, Roman (1911)
• Freiheit. Ein Schauspiel von 1812 (1913)
• Schloß Zeitvorbei, Dramatische Legende (1917)
• Die Traumgesichte des Adam Thor, Schauspiel (1929)
• Generalkonsul Stenzel und sein gefährliches Ich, Roman (1931)
• Heinrich von Plauen, Drama (1933)
• Scholle und Schicksal. Geschichte meines Lebens, Autobiografie (1933)
• Jahrhundertwende. Geschichte meines Lebens 1893-1914, Autobiografie (1935)
• Erntefest (1936)
• Die Elixiere des Glücks, Roman (1936)
• Kaiser Friedrich II (1940)
• Jo Roman (1917)

Literature

• Josef Egginger: Der Dichter Max Halbe im Öttinger Land. In: Oettinger Land, Altötting. 15 (1995). S. 127-135.
• Ulrich Erdmann: Vom Naturalismus zum Nationalsozialismus? Zeitgeschichtlich-biographische Studien zu Max Halbe, Gerhart Hauptmann, Johannes Schlaf und Hermann Stehr. Mit unbekannten Selbstzeugnissen. Frankfurt am Main u.a.: Lang. 1997. ISBN 3-631-30907-4
• Andreas Lothar Günter: Präfaschistische Weltanschauung im Werk Max Halbes. Frankfurt am Main u.a.: Lang. 2002. (= Europäische Hochschulschriften; Reihe 1, Deutsche Sprache und Literatur; 1841) ISBN 3-631-39419-5
• Joachim Kalcher: Perspektiven des Lebens in der Dramatik um 1900. Köln u.a.: Boehlau. 1980. (= Kölner germanistische Studien; 14) ISBN 3-412-02880-0
• Heinz Kindermann: Max Halbe und der deutsche Osten. Danzig: Rosenberg. 1941. (= Danzig in Geschichte und Gegenwart; 4)
• Werner Kleine: Max Halbes Stellung zum Naturalismus innerhalb der ersten beiden Dezennien seines dramatischen Schaffens. (1887-1900). Zeulenroda: Sporn. 1937.
• Peter Oliver Loew
  Peter Oliver Loew
  Peter Oliver Loew is a German historian, translator and scholar, specializing in the History of Poland.- Biography :Loew was born in Frankfurt am Main and studied Eastern European history, Slavistics and economics at the University of Nuremberg, University of Freiburg and the Free University of...
  
  : Die Heimat sucht den Dichter - der Dichter sucht die Heimat. Max Halbe und Danzig. In: Das literarische und kulturelle Erbe von Danzig und Gdańsk, hrsg. v. Andrzej Kątny, Frankfurt am Main (u.a.) 2004, S. 79-98 (= Danziger Beiträge zur Germanistik, Bd. 15). ISBN 3-631-53226-1
• Stadtbibliothek München (Hrsg.): Max Halbe zum 100. Geburtstag. München: Lehle. 1965.
• Thorsten Stegemann: Literatur im Abseits. Studien zu ausgewählten Werken von Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Sudermann, Max Halbe, Gottfried Benn und Erich Kästner. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verl. 2000. ISBN 3-89821-040-5
• Karl Ude: Max Halbes Nachlass. Ein Münchner Spiegel der Jahrhundertwende. In: Schwabing von innen. München 2002. S. 45-54.
• Herbert Weder: Die Stimmungskunst in Max Halbes Gegenwartsdramen unter bes. Berücksichtigung Ibsens. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie und Geschichte des Dramas um 1900. Würzburg: Werkbund. 1932.
• Friedrich Zillmann: Max Halbe. Wesen und Werk. Würzburg/Main: Holzner. 1959. (= Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis; Schriftenreihe; 62)