Georg Büchner, a Young Man far Ahead of his Times

by Paul A. Schons

Originally published by the Germanic-American Institute in April, 2002.

In April of 1836 Georg Büchner completed a dissertation which would gain him a doctoral degree and a teaching position at the University of Zurich. He was to come to be one of the most influential writers of the 19th century, although, as a literary figure he was nearly unknown in his own times. He was not discovered and appreciated until into the 20th century. He is now recognized as a precursor to German naturalism, expressionism and the theater of the absurd. His play, Woyzeck, was not performed until 1913, which was 76 years after his death. In 1925 the composer Alban Berg reinforced Büchner’s status by developing the play into an opera. (The spelling of the title was changed slightly to Wozzeck in the Berg opera.)

Georg Büchner was one of 6 children born to the medical doctor, Ernst Büchner and his wife Caroline. Georg was born in Goddelau near Darmstadt on October 17, 1813. When he was three, the family moved to Darmstadt. He received his early education at the humanistic Gymnasium (high school) there.

In 1831 Büchner left home to take up the study of medicine at the University of Straßburg. It was in Straßburg that he became enthused with the ideas of democracy, human rights and political revolution. In 1833 he transferred to the University of Gießen to complete his studies. But at Gießen he devoted a good deal of his time to the study of the French Revolution and was drawn to the political radicals at the university there. With his new friends he founded the “Gesellschaft der Menschenrechte” (Society for Human Rights). As many young idealists he felt an obligation to do something about the abuses of the common people which he saw around him. In 1834 he wrote an inflammatory pamphlet, Der Hessische Landbote of which 1,000 copies were made and distributed to the common people with the intention of stirring up a revolution.

The common people in Germany of those times, though, were not as ready for revolution as Büchner and his friends. Most of them turned the pamphlets over to the police as soon as they received them. The police and the government officials, made nervous by the French and the American revolutions, were not of a spirit to simply ignore the matter. An extended manhunt was launched to find the perpetrators. Büchner’s room in Gießen was searched, but nothing was found there. Prudence dictated that he leave Gießen and he returned home to Darmstadt. It was at that time that he wrote his play about the French Revolution, Dantons Tod (Danton’s Death). (The play would not be produced until 1902. Gottfried von Einem would later develop the play into an opera.)
While Büchner lived quietly in Darmstadt, the search for the guilty parties in the pamphlet affair at Gießen was being intensified. After a time, Büchner no longer felt secure in Germany and returned to Straßburg. His open political activities ended at that time. A close friend of the Gießen period, Ludwig Weidig, was arrested in Germany, sentenced to prison and died in his cell in 1837.
In Straßburg Büchner started a novella about an earlier writer, Jakob Lenz, of the “Sturm und Drang” period. Büchner was fascinated with Lenz’s blend of literary activity and social/political concerns.

He interrupted his work on Lenz to take up his doctoral dissertation work which he completed in April of 1836. That work was subsequently submitted to the faculty of philosophy at the University of Zurich and he was granted the doctoral degree on September 3, 1836. He was then appointed at the University of Zurich to teach German philosophical systems since Spinoza. Büchner, now 23, viewed his subject matter as trivial in the face of the great social/political problems he saw in the reality around him, but nevertheless undertook the task.
His greater enthusiasm was reserved for his writing. In 1836 he quickly wrote a philosophical/political comedy for a prize competition, Leonce und Lena. The play arrived after the submission deadline, however, and was not considered by the judges. The play would not be produced until long after Büchner’s death. He then turned his energy to the play, Woyzeck, which was finally produced in 1913.

In the winter of his first year as a teacher at the University of Zurich, Büchner contracted typhus. The 23 year old was strong enough to battle the disease for 17 days. On February 19, 1837 he died. His literary works would lie fallow through the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century when they would be rediscovered and ignite great flames of enthusiasm. One of the great literature prizes in Germany, the Büchner-Preis, was founded in his honor. That prize has been won over the years by such outstanding writers as Gottfried Benn, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Erich Kästner, Günter Grass, Heinrich Böll, Martin Walser, Max Frisch, Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann and Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Toward the end of his life, Büchner had grown more and more cynical concerning the futility of his passions, ideals and dreams. That view of the absurdity of his higher aspirations and visions of the possibilities of a better way of life were preserved in his art. That continuing anguish led Alfred Döblin to say of him, “Dieser Büchner war ein toller Hund. Nach 23 oder 24 Jahren verzichtete er auf weitere Existenz und starb. Es scheint, die Sache war ihm zu dumm.” (This Büchner was a sly dog. After 23 or 24 years he just gave up further existence and died. It seems that the whole thing just seemed too dumb to him.)