Ernst Toller (German playwright) Add a review

Ernst Toller (1 December 1893 – 22 May 1939) was a German author, playwright, left-wing politician, and revolutionary known for his Expressionist plays. He served for six days in 1919 as president of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, after which he became head of its army. He was imprisoned for five years for his part in the Bavarian Soviet Republic's armed resistance to the central government in Berlin. In prison, Toller wrote several plays that gained him international renown. They were performed in London, New York City, and Berlin.

In 1933 Toller was exiled from Germany after the Nazis came to power. He did a lecture tour in 1936–1937 in the United States and Canada, settling in California for a while before going to New York, where he joined other exiles. He died by suicide in 1939.