"Vor Sonnenaufgang: Soziales Drama" by Gerhart Hauptmann is a social drama written in 1889. The play depicts a wealthy farming family's descent into alcoholism and decay after discovering coal on their land. Helene, the only daughter educated away from home, suffers in this environment until a visiting economist arrives to study local workers. Their developing romance faces a devastating obstacle when he discovers her family's alcoholism, believing it hereditary. The work marked the breakthrough of naturalism in German theater. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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