German playwright and novelist Hermann Sudermann was born into a poor family in Matziken, East Prussia, in 1857. His father, a brewer, descended from a line of very strict fundamentalist Mennonite Christians. In fact, one of his ancestors, Daniel Sudermann, was a Protestant clergyman who played a major role in fomenting the religious wars that wracked Europe in the 18th century.
As a young boy, Hermann was apprenticed to a pharmacist, but he detested the smell of the medicines and formulas in the pharmacy and ran away. He then attended Konigsburg University, where he studied history and philology. However, he chafed at the restrictions and conventions of academic life at the time and one day just stood up in the middle of a class and left, never to return.
He next showed up in Berlin, attempting to break into legitimate theatre as a writer, but met with such little success that he was forced to take a job as a private tutor in order to survive. He managed to get a job as an editor on a small political weekly, but eventually turned out a few novels that met with some success, including "Frau Sorge" and "Geschwister".
In 1889, his play "Die Ehre" was produced in Berlin, and in 1890, his novel "Katzensteg" (also known as "Regina") attracted attention for its sympathetic portrayals of the poor and downtrodden. However, his 1891 novel "Sodoms Ende" was declared "immoral" and temporarily banned by court order.
Undeterred, Sudermann continued to write, and his next work, the play "Heimat" (also known as "Magda"),was a major hit on stage. The play was a favorite of such stage luminaries as Sarah Bernhardt, Eleanora Duse, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
Apart from the occasional novel, Sudermann concentrated on writing plays for the next several years, but not entirely successfully. He actually achieved more success as a novelist than as a playwright, although the modern perception of him is generally exactly the opposite.
Hermann Sudermann died in Berlin, Germany, in 1928.
