Lessing is a German surname of Slavic origin, originally Lesnik meaning "woodman". Lessing may refer to: A German family of writers, artists, musicians and politicians who can be traced back to a Michil Lessigk mentioned in 1518 as being a linen weaver in Jahnsdorf near Chemnitz. The family includes: (1693–1770) pastor primarus in Kamenz, well respected, published theologian, translator and father of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) and Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740–1812). Johann Gottfried's father Theophilus Lessing (1647–1735) was mayor of Kamenz and Robert Schumann's (the composer and pianist 1810–1856) four-times great uncle, Johanne Sophie Susanna Lessing (1745–1818 daughter of Carl Heinrich Lessing 1713, a trumpeter) his grandmother. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), one of the most prominent philosophers of the Enlightenment era, recognised as the world's first dramaturg, Germany's first dramatist and comedy playwright, champion for religious tolerance, friend of Moses Mendelssohn, critic for the Vossische Zeitung, translator and Shakespearean scholar. Today his own works appear as prototypes of the later developed bourgeois German drama. Scholars generally see Miss Sara Sampson and Emilia Galotti as the first bourgeois tragedies, Minna von Barnhelm as the model for many classic German comedies, Nathan the Wise as the first German drama of ideas ("Ideendrama") and his theoretical writings Laokoon and Hamburg Dramaturgy set the standards for the discussion of aesthetic and literary theoretical principles. Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740–1812), Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's (1729–1781) younger brother and his first biographer, comedy playwright, translator, mint director and owner through marriage to Marie Friederike Voß, the daughter of of the Vossische Zeitung. Carl Friedrich Lessing (1778–1848), son of Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740–1812), published philosopher, chancellor under Prince Biron von Curland in Polnisch Wartenberg. Karl Friedrich Lessing (1808–1880), German painter, son of Carl Friedrich Lessing (1778–1848) and great nephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), married to Ida Heuser niece of painter Henriette Jügel and whose niece Malwine Schroedter (1847–1901) married painter and then director of the Academy of Arts, Berlin, Anton von Werner. Christian Friedrich Lessing (1809–1862, died and buried in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia), physician, botanist, writer, son of Carl Friedrich Lessing (1778–1848) and great nephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) Carl Louis Gotthold Ludwig Lessing (1817–1897), modelmaker/designer, wine grower and lecturer, son of Carl Friedrich Lessing (1778–1848) and great nephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) married to Marie von Ammon (1833–1928), granddaughter of , a lawyer in Brussels and later president of the region of Trier, also sister of