With his play
Die Zwillinge[
The Twins, publ. 1776], Friedrich Maximilian Klinger won the Hamburg drama competition of 1775, beat his rival Johann Anton Leisewitz (1752-1806) with his entry
Julius von Tarent, and gained instant recognition as a formidable author. It was the fourth of six plays that he composed during his two years as a law student at the University of Giessen (1774-76); his sixth drama (original title:
Wirrwarr[
Chaos]) was eventually entitled
Sturm und Drang[
Storm and Stress, 1777], thus providing the name for the literary movement around young Goethe. As he had to meet the expectations of the theater, Klinger paid more attention to the conventional three dramatic unities in
Die Zwillingethan in his previous compositions and thus produced a play of a transitional…
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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Die Zwillinge". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21638, accessed 23 November 2024.]
