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 t…
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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Die Zwillinge". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21638, accessed 21 November 2024.]