Lessing

Lessing - German family of writers and artists

  • 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 Lessing (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 Lessing (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 (sculptor) (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) Lessing (born 1919), British novelist and the 2007 Nobel Prize laureate in literature married to Gottfried Lessing (1914–1979)
  • Gottfried Lessing (1914–1979), German diplomat
  • Feodor (Franz Theodor) Yulievich Levinson-Lessing, Russian geologist
  • Erich Lessing, magnum photographer
  • Lawrence Lessing, US journalist
  • Lawrence Lessig, American academic and political activist
  • Simon Lessing (born 1971), British athlete
  • Theodor Lessing (1872–1933), German-Jewish philosopher
This page or section lists people with the surname Lessing. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.

Famous quotes containing the word lessing:

    “A single thankful thought towards heaven is the most perfect of all prayers.”
    —Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1881)

    “There was a continuous movement now, from Zone Five to Zone Four. And from Zone Four to Zone Three, and from us, up the pass. There was a lightness, a freshness, and an enquiry and a remaking and an inspiration where there had been only stagnation. And closed frontiers. For this is how we all see it now.”
    —Doris Lessing (b. 1919)

    “Literature is analysis after the event.”
    —Doris Lessing (b. 1919)