Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Hardt (9 May 1876 – 3 January 1947), born Ernst Stöckhardt, was a German

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

, and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

. Hardt was born in Graudenz,

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a Provinces of Prussia, province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kin ...

(now Grudziądz, Poland). He is the author of ''Priester des Todes'' (1898), ''Bunt ist das Leben'' (1902), ''An den Toren des Lebens'' (1904), and the plays ''Der Kampf ums Rosenrote'' (1903), ''Ninon von Lenclos'' (1905), ''Tantris der Narr'' (1907), ''Gudrun'' (1911), and ''Konig Salomo'' (1915). He was director of the National Theater in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

(1919–24), the

Schauspiel Köln Schauspiel Köln is a theatre and company in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It forms together with the Cologne Opera and other houses the Bühnen der Stadt Köln (Stages of the city of Cologne). The listed building has 830 seats in t ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

(1925), and the

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the conso ...

(West German Broadcasting Co). (1926–1933). He worked with

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

on some experimental radio broadcasts. He was removed from his position with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk by the Nazis in 1933. A few months later he was imprisoned for a short period and then took refuge in the Sankt Anna Hospital in Cologne-Lindenthal. He was later acquitted in the "broadcast trial" and able, for a time, to resume some literary activities. Hardt died in Ichenhausen.

References

External links

''Tristram the Jester''
1907 1876 births 1947 deaths 19th-century German novelists 20th-century German novelists German poets People from the Province of Prussia People from Grudziądz German male poets German male novelists German male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male writers 20th-century German male writers Westdeutscher Rundfunk people {{Germany-writer-stub