Karl Bleibtreu

After abandoning his studies in 1884 at the Faculty of Arts in Berlin, Bleibtreu travelled all over Europe, visiting Belgium, Hungary, Italy and the UK.

From 1885 he worked as a freelance writer in Berlin-Charlottenburg, where he met Michael Georg Conrad, with whom from 1888 to 1890 he worked on the magazine Die Gesellschaft: realistische Wochenschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Leben (Society: realistic weekly for literature, art and life).

Literary critics, in his eyes, were of great importance for the success of an author, because they had power to make or break reputations.

Bleibtreu insisted that critics should evaluate only the real quality of a literary work and not - as so often in this period - judge on the basis of aversion to the author or his morals and political intentions.

In Revolution der Literatur Bleibtreu described this demand in his characteristically lurid style: If Shakespeare had been the greatest villain [...], would we be less committed to admire him?

If Jesus Christ showed me bad poetry, I would thrash him mercilessly, all my moral respect and adoration notwithstanding.

After the publication of Gerhart Hauptmann's naturalist drama „Vor Sonnenaufgang“ ("Before Dawn") Bleibreu's call for "revolutionary literature" seemed to be fulfilled.

However, from that point on he wanted nothing more to do with "consistent naturalism" („konsequenten Naturalismus“), which he even called "so-called realistic imitation of the Jewish school."