The Ständeklausel (estates-clause) was a principle in poetic theatre, by which attempts were made to transfer the principles of Classicist French drama...

enunciated rules by which the playwright must be bound (such as the Ständeklausel), and abolished bombast and buffoonery from the serious stage. He insisted...

it. Tragedy had previously been limited to the nobility, through the Ständeklausel or "estates clause", but Lessing's genre opened it to the world of the...