Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. Today his works appear as prototypes of the later developed bourgeois German drama. "Miss Sara Sampson" and "Emilia Galotti" are seen as the first bourgeois tragedies, "Minna von Barnhelm" as the model for many classic German comedies.