Gerhart Hauptmann
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| Born | Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann 15 November 1862 Obersalzbrunn, Silesia, Prussia |
| Died | 6 June 1946 (aged 83) Agnetendorf (Jagniątków), People's Republic of Poland |
| Occupation | Dramatist |
| Nationality | German |
| Literary movement | Naturalism |
| Notable works | The Weavers, The Rats |
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Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.
Gerhart Hauptmann was born in 1862 in Obersalzbrunn, now known as Szczawno-Zdrój, in Lower Silesia (then a part of Prussia, now part of Poland). His parents were the Robert and Marie Hauptmann, who ran a hotel in the area. As a youth, Hauptmann had a reputation of being loose with the truth. Beginning in 1868, he attended the village school and then, in 1874, the Realschule in Breslau for which he had only barely passed the qualifying exam. Hauptmann had difficulties adjusting himself to his new surroundings in the city. He lived, along with his brother Carl, in a somewhat run-down student boarding house before finding lodging with a pastor. He also ran into problems with the Prussian-influenced school. Above all the strictness of the teachers and the better treatment of his noble classmates. His dislike and numerous illness which kept him from attending class, led to his having to repeat his first year. Over time, he came to appreciate Breslau because of the opportunity to visit the theater.
In the spring of 1878, Hauptmann left the Realschule to learn agriculture on his uncle's farm in Lohnig (today Łagiewniki Średzkie in Gmina Udanin, Poland). After a year and a half, however, he had to break off his training. He was not physically prepared for the work and he had a contracted a life-threatening lung ailment that troubled him for the next twenty months.
After he failed to pass an officer entry exam for the Prussian Army, Hauptmann entered the sculpture school at the Royal Art and Vocational School in Breslau in 1880. There he met Josef Block who became a lifelong friend. After a temporary expulsion, due to "poor behavior and insufficient diligence," and a quick reinstatement at the recommendation of sculptor and Professor Robert Härtel, Hauptmann left the school in 1882. For his brother's wedding, he wrote a short play, Liebesfrühling, that was performed on the night before the wedding. Also at the wedding, he met the bride's sister, Marie Thienemann. He secretly became engaged to her and Marie began supporting him financially, which enabled him to begin a semester of studying philosophy and literary history at the University of Jena, which he soon quit.
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