Named for Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), German dramatist and writer on philosophy and aesthetics. He abandoned an early interest in theology for literature, philosophy and art. In 1766, his great treatise on aesthetics, Laokoon: oder über die Grenzen der Malerei und Poesie, was published. As a philosopher he is remembered for Nathan der Weise (1779), and especially for Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (1780), in which he expressed his belief on the perfectability of the human race. Lessing’s last years were lonely and poor, and upon his death he was buried at public expense. (M 31025) _ _.