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Who were Gotthold Ephraim Lessingās close friends among the Berlin Enlightenment writers?
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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Lessing, detail of an oil painting by Georg May, 1768; in the Gleimhaus, Halberstadt, Germany.
Among the writers of the Berlin Enlightenment, the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and the writer and publisher C.F. Nicolai stand out as Gotthold Ephraim Lessingās closest friends.1
Lessing maintained a significant and influential correspondence with both men, particularly regarding the aesthetics of tragic drama, which they explored in their Briefwechsel Ć¼ber das Trauerspiel (1756ā57; "Correspondence About Tragedy"). Additionally, Lessing collaborated regularly with Nicolai on the weekly publication Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend ("Letters Concerning the Latest Literature"), where they contributed essays on contemporary literature and advocated for a national German drama.1