The writer and Germanist Friedrich Gundolf (1880-1931) was part of the close circle around the poet Stefan George since 1899, but their relationship broke down in 1923. Gundolf's book about George was first published in 1920, at a time when the relationship between the two men was already strained. During the Weimar Republic, Gundolf's works on Goethe, Kleist, and Shakespeare went through numerous editions, and in 1930 he was awarded the Lessing Prize. In 1964, the German Academy for Language and Literature established the Friedrich Gundolf Prize, which is still awarded annually today for the promotion of German culture outside of academia. This is a reprint of the first edition from 1920 in Berlin.