Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic. He was a representative of the Enlightenment. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. He is widely considered by theatre historians to be the first dramaturg in his role at Abel Seyler's Hamburg National Theatre. The word "dramaturgy" first appears in his work Hamburg Dramaturgy. January 22, 1729 – February 15, 1781; died at 52. Alive at the same time as Napoleon, Ludwig van Beethoven, Immanuel Kant, Carl Linnaeus, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Wiki link