Leonce and Lena

Blurb

Leonce and Lena is a play by Georg Büchner which is considered a comedy, but is actually a satire veiled in humor. It was written in the spring of 1836 for a competition 'for the best one- or two-act comedy in prose or verse' sponsored by the Stuttgart publisher Cotta. However, Büchner missed the submission deadline and the play was returned to him unread. It was premiered almost 60 years later, on May 31, 1895, in an outdoor performance by the Munich Company Intimes Theater, directed by Ernst von Wolzogen and with the involvement of Max Halbe and Oskar Panizza, illustrating the fact that Büchner only gained prominence as a writer in the 20th century.
Erich Kästner considered Leonce and Lena to be one of the six most important classic comedies of the German language.