The life of Georg Buchner was short, intense, and tragic--and extremely significant for the development of modern drama. His three plays, Danton's Death, Leonce and Lena, and Woyzeck, were greatly ahead of their time in their penetrating dramatic and psychological treatment. They served as an impetus for contemporary schools of drama as different as the Theatre of the Absurd of Ionesco and the Epic Theatre of Brecht.

Also presented in this only complete volume of Buchner in English are his two powerful prose pieces, The Hessian Courier and his short story,...

The Lehrstucke (or 'learning-plays') lie at the heart of Brechtian theatre.

Written during 1929 and 1930, years of far-reaching political and economic upheaveal in Germany and the period of Brecht's most sharply Communist works, these short plays show an abrupt rejection of most of the trappings of conventional theatre.

The Lehrstucke are spare and highly formalized pieces intended for performance by amateurs, on the principle that the moral and political lessons contained in them can best be taught by participation in an actual production. There is nothing in the drama of the...