Editing Hermann Sudermann (section)

=== Early career ===
Sudermann was born at Matzicken, a village to the east of Heydekrug in the [[Province of Prussia]] (now [[Macikai]], in southwestern [[Lithuania]]), close to the Russian frontier. The Sudermanns were a [[Mennonite]] family from the [[Vistula delta Mennonites|Vistula delta Mennonite]] communities near the former Elbing, East Prussia, (now [[Elbląg]], Poland).

His father owned a small brewery in Heydekrug, and Sudermann received his early education at the ''[[Realschule]]'' in [[Elbing]], where he lived with his relatives and attended the Mennonite church where his uncle was the minister.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hermann Sudermann, Mennonite Playwright|author=Lauren Friesen|publisher=Center for Mennonite Writing Journal|url=https://mennonitewriting.org/journal/3/4/hermann-sudermann-mennonite-playwright-and-novelis/?fbclid=IwAR3Ke5JoqYRLG6Z1_6kHynllW-Pmk0tr8BHZl-xkMUjslVQBLGfKYTJwEHo#page2|accessdate=April 14, 2021}}</ref> His parents having been reduced in circumstances, he was apprenticed to a [[chemist]] at the age of 14. He was, however, able to enter the ''[[Realgymnasium]]'' (high school) in [[Tilsit]], and to study philosophy and history at Königsberg University.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Sudermann, Hermann|volume=26|page=20}}</ref>

In order to complete his studies Sudermann went to Berlin, where he was tutor to several families, including the family of the author Hans Hopfen (1835–1904). Next he became a journalist, and was in 1881 and 1882 the co-editor of the ''Deutsches Reichsblatt''. He then devoted himself to fiction, beginning with a collection of naturalistic short stories called ''Im Zwielicht'' ("At Twilight", 1886), and the novels ''[[Frau Sorge]]'' ("Dame Care", 1887), ''Geschwister'' ("Siblings", 1888) and ''Der Katzensteg'' ("Cats' Bridge", 1890). These works failed to bring the young author as much recognition as his first drama, ''[[Honour (Sudermann play)|Die Ehre]]'' ("Honour", 1889), which inaugurated a new period in the history of the German stage.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="Robertson1902">{{cite book|author=Robertson, John George|author-link=John George Robertson|title=A History of German Literature|page=616|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fdVbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA616|year=1902|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons}}</ref> This play, originally intended to be a tragedy, but on Blumenthal's advice given a "happy ending," was a pseudo-[[Nietzsche]]an attack on the morality of the lowly.

He married the novelist Clara Lauckner (1861–1924), née Schulz on 20 October 1891 and lived with his family in Berlin-[[Wannsee]]. She was a widow and already had three children from her previous short-lived marriage, and she then had one child with Sudermann: a daughter, Hede. They lived in Königsberg for the next two years, before moving to Dresden and then Berlin in 1895.