When Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg published his “tragedy in five acts” Ugolino (1768, first performances in Berlin and Königsberg 1769), he caused quite a stir because his innovative play appeared on the threshold between the decline of Enlightenment's neoclassicist aesthetics in literature and the dawn of the new poetics of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) that flourished after the discovery of Shakespeare's northern genius. Gerstenberg was the first to draw practical conclusions from the previous discussion about Shakespeare (see G. E. Lessing, 17. Literaturbrief, 1759; Gerstenberg, Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Literatur [Letters on the Particulars of Literature, 1766-67]) as well as from the available editions and translations (William Dodd, The Beauties of Shakespeare, 1752; Chr. M. Wieland's Shakespeare translation, 1761-66) by attempting to compose an original German play in Shakespeare's manner....
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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Ugolino". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21633, accessed 14 December 2025.]
