Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1908. / Chronological list of G. Hauptmann's works: p. 8. Includes bibliographical references (p. 6-7).

Issued also as thesis, Vienna 1944, under title: Das Irrationale im Werk Gerhart Hauptmanns. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-290) and index.

Issued also as thesis, Vienna 1944, under title: Das Irrationale im Werk Gerhart Hauptmanns. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-290) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu Köln. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 491-495).

Born in 1862, Gerhart Hauptmann witnessed the creation of the German Empire, the Great War, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and World War II before his death in 1946. Through his works as Germany's premier playwright, Hauptmann traces and exemplifies Germany's social, cultural, and political history during the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and comments on the social and political climate of each era. Hauptmann wrote more than forty plays, twenty novels, hundreds of poems, and numerous journal articles that reveal his ideas on politics and society. His ideas are reinforced in the hundreds of unpublished volumes of his diary and his copious letters preserved in the Prussian Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. In the 1960s, Germans celebrated Hauptmann's centenary as authors who had known or admired Hauptmann published biographies that chronicled his life but revealed little of his private thoughts. This dissertation examines Hauptmann's life from his early childhood through his adult life with emphasis on social and political commentaries found in his works, diaries, and letters. Hauptmann told of the social problems alcohol and greed created and used historical events to express his concern about Germany's labor and social conditions. He also used historical events to address the political problems that plagued Germans and their government. Even his fairytale, Hannele criticized the Volk's rejection of his view of German nationalism and unity. In all his works, Hauptmann challenged the Volk to find strength within their own souls and to reject the materialism of the modern world. Hauptmann's published and unpublished works reveal a man who found comfort and strength in the Volk and völkisch Kultur. He yearned for a united German Kultur and shaped his politics and commentaries to achieve unity. This dissertation examines Hauptmann's vision of German unity which winds its way throughout his works, an idea overlooked in other biographies and critiques.

Zugl.: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 2005

Gerhart Hauptmann, whose naturalistic period embraced the years 1885-1906, gave the world a negative picture of the woman who by her demeanor or actions destroys a man. In this thesis a distinction is drawn between lower class, unsophisticated women like Lene Thiel or Hanne Sehäl and more highly educated and somewhat emancipated women such as Anna Mahr and Hanna Elias. The former type destroyed the man through more coarse or brutal methods while the latter naturally employed a higher degree of sophistication exercising their destructive influence. Moreover, the former type married the men they subsequently ruined whereas the latter did not. The one aspect which unites all of the Hauptmann women in these works was the destructive influence, and the corresponding weakness of the men. The hopelessness of the situation in which the men found themselves was one of the important characteristics of Naturalism. No defender of women's emancipation, Hauptmann scorned the enlightened, educated women by making them just as unsuccessful as their less educated and unsophisticated counterparts. This point was made more distinctly in a Hauptmann drama of a later period entitled Insel der Grossen Mutter which appeared in 1924. The history of the time indicates the presence of a significant movement in the field of women's emancipation in Europe. Many of the models for Hauptmann's women were taken from real life. With the possible exception of Anna Mahr in Einsame Menschen, Hugh Garten's assertion that Hauptmann's women "are closer than men to the irrational forces of life" appears true. This exception may also be one of the finest characterizations of Hauptmann. The intrigant is remembered as one of the contributions of this commanding figure of German literature.