Hermann Sudermann

German dramatist and fiction writer whose works include a collection of naturalistic short stories, Im Zwielicht ("At Twilight", 1886) and the novels, Frau Sorge ("Dame Care", 1887), Geschwister ("Siblings", 1888) and Der Katzensteg ("Cats' Bridge", 1890). These works failed to bring the young author as much recognition as his first drama, Die Ehre ("Honour", 1889), which inaugurated a new period in the history of the German stage.

Sudermann was born at Matzicken, a village to the east of Heydekrug in the Province of Prussia (now Macikai and Šilutė, in southwestern Lithuania), close to the Russian frontier. He attended the high school in Tilsit, and studied philosophy and history at Königsberg University. In order to complete his studies Sudermann went to Berlin and became a journalist and was in 1881 and 1882 the co-editor of the Deutsches Reichsblatt.

He married the novelist Clara Lauckner (née Schulz, 1861–1924) on 20 October 1891 and lived with his family in Berlin-Wannsee.

He had a stroke in 1928, and died of a lung infection shortly afterwards, on 21 November that year in Berlin, aged 71. His stepson Rolf Lauckner set up the Hermann Sudermann Foundation to support young dramatists.