Lessing
Encyclopedia
Lessing - German family of writers and artists
Lessing is also the surname of:
- Johann Gottfried Lessing (1693-1770) pastor primarus in Kamenz, well respected, published theologian, translator and father of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) and Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740-1812). Johann Gottfried's father Theophilus Lessing 1647-1735 mayor of Kamenz Robert Schumann's (the composer and pianist 1810-1856) four times great uncle, Johanne Sophie Susanna Lessing (1745-1818 daughter of Carl Heinrich Lessing 1713, a trumpeter) his grandmother.
- Gotthold Ephraim LessingGotthold Ephraim LessingGotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
(1729-1781), one of the most prominent philosophers of the Enlightenment era, recognised as the world's first dramaturg, Germany's first dramatist and comedy playwright, champion for religious tolerance, friend of Moses Mendelssohn, critic for the Vossische Zeitung, translator and Shakespearean scholar. Today his own works appear as prototypes of the later developed bourgeois German drama. Scholars generally see Miß Sara Sampson and Emilia Galotti as the first bourgeois tragedies, Minna von Barnhelm (Minna of Barnhelm) as the model for many classic German comedies, Nathan the Wise (Nathan der Weise) as the first German drama of ideas ("Ideendrama") and his theoretical writings Laocoon and Hamburg Dramaturgy (Hamburgische Dramaturgie) set the standards for the discussion of aesthetic and literary theoretical principles - Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740-1812) , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's (1729-1781), younger brother and his first biographer, comedy playwright, translator, mint director and owner through marriage to Marie Friederike Voss of the Vossische Zeitung.
- Carl Friedrich Lessing ( 1778-1848), son of Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740-1812) chancellor
- Karl Friedrich LessingKarl Friedrich LessingKarl Friedrich Lessing was a German historical and landscape painter, grandnephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. He was born near Breslau, and was a pupil of Heinrich Anton Dähling at the Berlin Academy. He first devoted himself to landscape and in 1826 obtained a prize with his Cemetery in Ruins...
(1808 - 1880), German painter, son of Carl Friedrich Lessing (1778-1848) and great nephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) - Dr Christian Friedrich Lessing ( 1809-1862)physician, botanist, writer, son of Carl Friedrich Lessing (1778-1848) and great nephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
- Carl Louis Gotthold Ludwig Lessing (1817-1897), modelmaker/designer, wine grower and lecturer,son of Carl Friedrich Lessing (1778-1848) and great nephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
- Franziska Fanny Maria Lessing (1818-1901), daughter of Carl Friedrich Lessing and great niece of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) married to German painter Emil Ebers 1807- 1884.
- Carl Robert Lessing (1827-1895) publicist, owner of the Vossische Zeitung and Schloss Meseberg, son of Carl Friedrich Lessing (1778-1848) and great nephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1861-1919), son of Carl Robert Lessing (1827-1895)landowner and liberal politician.
- Otto Lessing (1846 - 1912), German sculptor,photographer and writer, gifted pianist, son of Karl Friedrich Lessing (1808-1880)married to Sigrid Gude daughter of Norwegian painter Hans Gude.
- Bertha Lessing (1844-1914) daughter of Karl Friedrich Lessing (1808-1880), married to royal court actor and dramatist Karl Koberstein.
- Konrad Lessing (1852-1916) landscape painter, son of Karl Friedrich Lessing (1808-1880).
- Heinrich Lessing (1856-1930) painter, son of Karl Friedrich Lessing (1808-1880).
- Kolja Lessing (1961) five times great nephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)German pianist, violinist, composer and music professor at the Stuttgart Musik Hochschule .
Lessing is also the surname of:
- Doris (May) LessingDoris LessingDoris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
(born 1919), British novelist and the 2007 Nobel Prize laureate in literature married to Gottfried Lessing (1914-1979) - Gottfried LessingGottfried LessingGottfried Anton Nicolai Lessing was a German lawyer, political activist and diplomat. Being Jewish, he was forced to migrate from Germany in 1938. First he sought refuge in Britain. Later he moved to Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia . He worked as a lawyer in Salisbury 1941-1946...
(1914-1979), German diplomat
- Feodor (Franz Theodor) Yulievich Levinson-LessingFeodor Yulievich Levinson-LessingFëdor Yulievich Levinson-Lessing , or Franz Theodor Levinson-Lessing was a Russian geologist....
, Russian geologist - Erich Lessing , magnum photographer
- Lawrence LessingLawrence LessingLawrence P. Lessing is an award-winning science writer.A native of Buffalo, New York, he started his career as a newspaper man in Pittsburgh. There he was a correspondent for Time Magazine...
, US journalist - Lawrence LessigLawrence LessigLawrence "Larry" Lessig is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive...
, American academic and political activist - Simon LessingSimon LessingSimon Christopher Lessing, MBE, is a British triathlete who won five Olympic-distance world titles . He also won races at 70.3, ITU long distance and Ironman-distance events. He set an Olympic-distance world record in 1996, and is noted for his 2004 Ironman Lake Placid win, where he set a course...
(born 1971), British athlete - Theodor LessingTheodor LessingTheodor Lessing was a German Jewish philosopher.He is known for opposing the rise of Hindenburg as president of the Weimar Republic and for his classic on Jewish self-hatred , a book which he wrote in 1930, three years before Hitler came to power, in which he tried to explain the phenomenon of...
(1872 - 1933), German-Jewish philosopher