Friedrich Maximilian Klinger is considered one of the most significant playwrights of the Sturm und Drang period. His eponymous drama gave this literary movement its name. The Germanist Maximilian Rieger (1828 - 1909) writes in the preface to his extensive biography of Klinger: "One cannot say that Klinger, at least the young one, has an unstable character portrayal in history. Rather, he belongs to those whose character has been firmly shaped, even though little was known about the man's life and his writings were not thoroughly and coherently understood... I hope to have achieved enough that he now stands before us psychologically vivid and comprehensible..." Reprint of the original first volume from 1880.