[1][2] It was written sometime between autumn 1890 and spring 1891, but did not receive its first performance until 20 November 1906 when it premiered at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin under the direction of Max Reinhardt.

[3] The play criticises perceived problems in the sexually oppressive culture of nineteenth century (Fin de siècle) Germany and offers a vivid dramatisation of the erotic fantasies that can breed in such an environment.

After school Melchior Gabor and Moritz Stiefel engage in small talk, before both confiding that they have recently been tormented by sexual dreams and thoughts.

Martha, Thea, and Wendla, cold and wet from a recent storm, walk down the street and talk about how Melchior and the other boys are playing in the raging river.

Because the next classroom only holds 60 pupils, Moritz must rank at least 60th in his class in order to remain at school (a requisite he is unsure he can manage).

Fortunately, Moritz safely returns, euphoric: he and Ernst Robel are tied academically—the next quarter will determine who will be expelled.

Alone, he meets Ilse, a former friend who ran away to the city to live a Bohemian life with several fiery, passionate lovers.

After an investigation, the professors at the school hold that the primary cause of Moritz's suicide was an essay on sexuality that Melchior wrote for him.

In November, an escaped Melchior hides in a cemetery where he discovers Wendla's tombstone, which attests that she died of anemia.

Melchior is almost seduced into traveling with Moritz into death, but a mysterious figure called the Masked Man intervenes.

The Masked Man informs Melchior that Wendla died of an unnecessary abortion, and that he has appeared to teach him the truth about life in order to rescue him from death.

Due to heavy subject matters such as puberty, sexuality, rape, child abuse, homosexuality, suicide, teenage pregnancy, and abortion, the play has often been banned or censored.

[4][5][6] Anarchist Emma Goldman praised the play's portrayal of childhood and sexuality in her 1914 treatise The Social Significance of the Modern Drama.

This performance was threatened with closure when the city's Commissioner of Licenses claimed that the play was pornographic, but a New York trial court issued an injunction to allow the production to proceed.

[9] The New York Times deemed it a "tasteless production of a badly translated version [of] the first and most celebrated play by the brilliant Frank Wedekind."

[10] Drama critic Heywood Broun panned the production but singled out Stein as giving "the worst performance we have ever seen on any stage.

[16] Kristine Landon-Smith, who later founded the Tamasha Theatre Company, produced Spring Awakening at the Young Vic in 1985.

In 1995 English poet Ted Hughes was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company to write a new translation of the play.

[20] English playwright Anya Reiss wrote an adaptation which the Headlong theatre company took on a tour of Britain in the spring of 2014.

[citation needed] In 2008 episodes of the Australian soap opera Home and Away, the play is on the syllabus at Summer Bay High for Year 12 students and causes some controversy.