Max Frisch
Frisch's dramas up until the early 1960s are divided by the literary commentator into three groups: (1) the early wartime pieces, (2) the poetic plays such as "" ("Don Juan oder Die Liebe zur Geometrie") and (3) the dialectical pieces. It is above all with this third group, notably the parable "The Fire Raisers" (1953), identified by Frisch as a "lesson without teaching", and with "Andorra" (1961) that Frisch enjoyed the most success. Indeed, these two are among the most successful German language plays. The writer nevertheless remained dissatisfied because he believed they had been widely misunderstood. In an interview with Heinz Ludwig Arnold Frisch vigorously rejected their allegorical approach: "I have established only that when I apply the parable format, I am obliged to deliver a message that I actually do not have". After the 1960s Frisch moved away from the theatre. His late biographical plays "" ("Biografie: Ein Spiel") and "" were apolitical but they failed to match the public success of his earlier dramas. It was only shortly before his death that Frisch returned to the stage with a more political message, with "Jonas and his Veteran", a stage version of his arresting dialogue "Switzerland without an army? A Palaver".
Friedrich Maximilian Klinger
Klinger was a man of vigorous moral character and full of fine feeling, though the bitter experiences and deprivations of his youth are largely reflected in his dramas. It was one of his earliest works, "Sturm und Drang" (1776), which gave its name to this artistic epoch. In addition to this tragedy and "Die Zwillinge" (1776), the chief plays of his early period of passionate fervour and restless "storm and stress" are "Die neue Arria" (1776), "Simsone Grisaldo" (1776) and "Stilpo und seine Kinder" (1780). To a later period belongs the fine double tragedy of "Medea in Korinth" and "Medea auf dem Kaukasos" (1791). In Russia, he devoted himself mainly to the writing of philosophical romances, of which the best known are "Fausts Leben, Taten und Höllenfahrt" (1791), "Geschichte Giafars des Barmeciden" (1792) and "Geschichte Raphaeis de Aquillas" (1793). This series was closed in 1803 with "Betrachtungen und Gedanken über verschiedene Gegenstände der Welt und der Literatur". In these works, Klinger gives calm and dignified expression to the leading ideas which the period of Sturm und Drang had bequeathed to German classical literature.Klingers works were published in twelve volumes (1809–1815), also 1832–1833 and 1842. The most recent edition is in eight volumes (1878–1880); but none of these is complete. A selection will be found in A. Sauer, "Stürmer und Dränger", vol. 1. (1883). See E. Schmidt, "Lenz und Klinger" (1878); M. Rieger, "Klinger in der Sturm-und Drangperiode" (1880); and "Klinger in seiner Reife" (1896).