HALBE, harbe, Max, German dramatist: b. Guettland, near Danzig, 4 Oct. 1865, of an old family of peasants who had immigrated two centuries earlier from Westphalia. He attended the gymnasium at Marienburg, and the universities of Heidelberg (where he studied law, 1883), Munich (1884), and Berlin (1885-87), where he studied history and Ger manic philology. In both the latter cities he became acquainted with the leaders of the new naturalistic movement in German literature, and was associated with the Frew Biihne (Free Stage) Movement in 1889. He was strongly influenced by the association with, and the works of Johannes Schlaf and Arno Holz (q.v.), and in the spring of 1890 wrote the play 'Freie Liebe) (Free Love). He mar ried the same year. Halbe was not entirely in accord with the Freie Biihne, and with consistent naturalism (see HAUPTMANN, GeaiART), as the latter deviated considerably from his own tendencies. Accordingly it was diffi cult for him to place 'Eisgang> (1892) and (1893) on the stage, although the latter did have a performance on the Freie Volksbiihne in 1892. 'Jugend' was especially difficult to place; famous theatre managers in Berlin (L'Arronge, Barnay, Blumenthal) re fused it, but Lautenburg accepted and per formed it with great success in 1893. Theatre goers considered Halbe as having displaced Hauptmann in the primacy of contemporary German drama. But the theatrical public of Berlin is very fickle and requires a succession of favorable impressions, and when Halbe's next play, the comedy (`The Tourist in made the impres sion of being witless, his reputation rapidly declined. Constant laments were uttered by critics, as to his failure to fulfill the promise of his early work. Halbe decided to absent
himself from the hothouse atmosphere of liter ature in the capital, and settled in the country at Kreuzlingen, on Lake Constance, in 1894. In 1895 he settled in Munich, where he again began to write; the dramas (Lebenswende> and 'Mutter Erde) (the latter and 'Jugend' are his most famous works) and the novelle* 'Frau Mesek' are of this period. In 1895, together with Ruederer, Halbe founded the Intimate Theatre at Munich in which writers and poets appeared on the stage. Among the other mem bers of this circle were Hartleben, Hirschfeld, Wedekind, Gumppenberg, Karl Hauptmann, Ludwig Thoma and Count Keyserling. A com plete list of his dramas includes 'Ern Empor kommling' (1889) ; (Freie Liebe' (1890, later called 'En Verhaltnis,' 1895) ;
(1892) ; 'Jugend' (1893);