• His mother nurtured in him a love of literature and art.
• Educated in Strasbourg, he became a doctor, however, his focus quickly transferred to social rights and politics from around 1828-9
• For such a young age, (he was a doctor at 18), Buchner’s desire to help others was focused on the working-class struggles
• He wrote and distributed the “Hessian Courier”, an illegal leaflet on the political injustices of Germany
• His other noted plays alongside “Woyzeck” include “Danton’s Death” and “Leonce and Lena”
• 1792-1802: French Revolution
• 1813: Buchner was born
• 1804-1815: Napoleonic Wars begin
• 1834-5: Buchner is under threat of constant arrest from the authorities. He writes the “Hessian Courier” and later “Danton’s Death”
• 1818-1883: Karl Marx revolutionises Socialism (a stage of society in Marxist theory between capitalism and communism, distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done)
• 1830s/1840s: Industrial Growth in German states
• The German middle-class (based in cities) grew exponentially, benefiting from the increase in industrial income through engineering, architecture and the newly built railroad
• The working class naturally didn’t receive the same opportunities as the higher classes, due to the lack of education and therefore, denied access to certain incomes
• 1836-7: “Woyzeck” was written
• 1848: Revolution of German states
• 1837: Buchner died after a 17-day battle of Typhus, leaving “Woyzeck” unfinished (age 24)
• Following Büchner's death, his family would not allow his manuscripts in their possession to be published. Moreover, Wilhelmine Jaegle, to whom Büchner was secretly engaged in Strasbourg and who initially cooperated with Gutzkow by sending him Leonce and Lena and Lenz for publication in his periodical Telegraf für Deutschland, eventually became unwilling to