WEDEKIND, FRANK (1864-1918), German dramatist, was born in Hanover on July 24, 1864. In 1883 he took up journalism. Afterwards he became an advertising manager and then, in 1890, secretary of a circus. In 1897 he set up as an actor and producer acting in his own dramas. His dramatic works in clude : Friihlings Erwachen (1891), Erdgeist (1895), Der Marquis V011 Keith and Die Kammersiinger (1900), Die Biichse der Pandora (1903), Schloss Wetterstein (1910) and Franziska Wedekind's plays are written in a difficult symbolic style.
Their preoccupation with erotic themes awoke much opposition, and he served a term of imprisonment in Munich for lese-majeste. Wedekind also wrote poetry (Die Vier Jahreszeiten), novels, Mine-Haha (1906), etc., and essays. He died in Munich on March 9, 1918. See A. Kutscher, Frank Wedekind His Works were published in 8 vols., 1912-19. Certain plays were translated into English by S. A. Eliot, Jr., New York.