J. M. R. Lenz

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751–1792) was a German-language writer and dramatist associated with the Sturm und Drang movement. The son of a pastor, he began studying theology but abandoned his studies and turned to freelance writing in 1774. His best-known works include the plays “The Tutor” (»Der Hofmeister«) and “The Soldiers” (»Die Soldaten«), as well as the treatise “On Soldiers’ Marriages” (»Über die Soldatenehen«). Lenz spent some time in Weimar in Goethe’s circle but left the city after an incident. Later, the pastor Johann Friedrich Oberlin took him into his care; Oberlin’s records subsequently served Georg Büchner as a source for his novella “Lenz”.