[…] But there is not a trace of actual political poetry in his work; the poet avoided all rhetoric, and everything has been created and shaped in a genuine and truthful manner. Artistically, Gerhart Hauptmann is one of the very few in our time who carry the genuine wings of poetry on their shoulders and rise above the steam and haze of party politics to dwell in those purer heights that are accessible only to poets, philosophers, and truly religious natures. What moved the visitors to the “Freie Bühne” to such stormy applause on Sunday was certainly not the revolutionary speech of a party politician, but only the general, great humanity that expressed itself strongly in love, compassion, and hatred: everything political and socialist has here been purified into the purest artistic education and humanity floating above naked interest.
Julius Hart – Tägliche Rundschau 28.2.1893