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Article: Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
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- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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LESSING, GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM
LESSING, GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM
(1729
–
1781), German dramatist, critic, theologian, and most prominent proponent of the German Enlightenment. A son of the city's chief Lutheran pastor, Lessing was born in Kamenz in the Electorate of Saxony on 22 January 1729. After attending the local Latin school and the famous ducal school of St. Afra in Meissen, Lessing entered the University of Leipzig in 1746 in order to study theology. Having discovered his love for the theater, he left the university without a degree and, to the dismay of his father, started to make a living as a freelance writer and critic, moving back and forth between the cities of Leipzig, Berlin, ...