Politically divided into dozens of small kingdoms and principalities, Germany lacked the cultural focus that existed in England, France, and Spain during the renaissance of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Martin Esslin points out that it was not until the mid-eighteenth century, when a German nation began to emerge, that her great playwrights appeared.

In this anthology, editor Martin Esslin has gathered together seven of the major works of Germany's greatest playwrights.

Contents:

• Part One: The Plays
  • Emilia Galotti by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (trans. Charles Lee Lewes)
  • Faust Part I by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (trans. Anna Swanwick)
  • The Death of Wallenstein by Friedrich Schiller (trans. S. T. Coleridge)
  • Prince Frederick of Homburg by Heinrich von Kleist (trans. Martin Esslin)
  • Leonce and Lena by Georg Büchner (trans. Eric Bentley)
  • King Nicolo or Such is Life by Frank Wedekind (trans. Martin Esslin)
  • The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertold Brecht (trans. Eric Bentley)
• Part Two: Essays
  • excerpts from "Hamburgische Dramaturgie" and "Briefe die neueste Literatur betreffend" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
  • The Stage as a Moral Institution by Friedrich Schiller
  • On Epic and Dramatic Poetry by Goethe and Schiller
  • My View of Drama by Friedrich Hebbel
  • Brecht's Theory of the Epic Theater by Martin Esslin