Gotthold Ephraim Lessing lived from January 22, 1729 to February 15, 1781. He was a German writer who had impact on the arts. This was during the Enlightenment era, and his plays and theoretical writings were very influential to this movement. Lessing's father was a Lutheran minister. Lessing studied theology, medicine, philosophy, and philology. It was actually because of a girl that he became very interested in theater. His first play, The Young Scholar, was produced in 1748. He became a respected critic of dramas. He held a brand new position at a brand new theater. He was the critic of plays and acting at the Hamburg National Theater. The theater closed after he had worked there 3 years because of finances and pirated ideas. Lessing then began working at a library. He was well respected and had contact with many influential people. Towards the end of his life he pointed his focus to religion. He was not convinced by revelation, historical claims, or miracles being true. He could not experience the things in the Bible himself, so he could not get himself to believe them. After a skirmish with another theology about the historicity of Christian revelation, he produced what is considered to be his most influential play, Nathan the Wise. In this play Lessing presented religion as relative to the reason of an individual person. This was a thought in line with the Enlightenment movement. His idea that human reason doesn't need divine revelation is most clearly shown in his writing The Education of Humankind.