Volume I of II of the plays by Gerhart Hauptmann, who was a German dramatist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912. Hauptmann was born in Obersalzbrunn, a small city of Silesia, now known as Szczawno-Zdrj and a part of Poland. Hauptmann's first drama, Vor Sonnenaufgang inaugurated the naturalistic movement in modern German literature; it was followed by Das Friedensfest, Einsame Menschen and Die Weber, a powerful drama depicting the rising of the Silesian weavers in 1844. Of Hauptmann's subsequent work, mention may be made of the comedies Kollege Crampton, Der Biberpelz and Der rote Hahn, a "dream poem," Hannele, and an historical drama Florian Geyer. He also wrote two tragedies of Silesian peasant life, Fuhrmann Henschel and Rose Bernd, and the dramatic fairy-tales Die versunkene Glocke and Und Pippa tanzt. 1911 was the zenith: he wrote Die Ratten, for which he received the Nobel Prize. During the First World War Hauptmann was a Pacifist. Volume I contains Before Dawn (Vor Sonnenaufgang), The Weavers (Die Weber), The Beaver Coat (Der Biberpelz) and The Conflagration (Der rote Hahn).