Georg Büchner

Georg Büchner, born in Goddelau near Darmstadt on October 17th, 1813, was the oldest of eight children. From 1831 to 1833, Büchner studied medicine and natural sciences in Strasbourg and then history and philosophy in Giessen in 1833. In 1834 he founded an organization for human rights called the Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte and, together with Ludwig Weidig, published the Hessischer Landbote pamphlet, in which they call on the rural population of Hessen to start a revolution against absolutist oppression. In addition to his studies and political activism, Büchner began to write, creating Dantons Tod, Lenz and Leonce und Lena. In 1835 Büchner fled to Strasbourg to escape political persecution. After he completed his doctorate, Büchner worked as a lecturer in comparative anatomy from 1836 at Zurich University, where he also wrote the unfinished drama Woyzeck. At the beginning of 1837, Büchner contracted typhus and died shortly thereafter on February 19th, 1837, in Zurich.