He was born in Hanover and had a number of jobs before working in cabaret and becoming a playwright.
His first major play, Frühlings Erwachen (The Awakening of Spring, 1891), which concerns sexuality and puberty, caused a scandal. The "Lulu" plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904) are probably his best known pieces; the two were the basis for Alban Berg's operaLulu, and Die Büchse der Pandora was the basis for the filmPandora's Box (1929). Wedekind's work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes, especially towards sex, is considered to anticipate expressionism.
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Wedekind’s musical talents can perhaps be inferred from his studies: “as a schoolboy he learned the guitar and the flute and, later, the violin, piano and mandolin” (Jarman 13).
WedekindÂ’s imprisonment had spurned an outcry from the German intelligentsia, and this brought him notoriety and spurned his success as a dramatist.
In contrast, Wedekind was increasingly vilified by the political, religious, and literary establishment.
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