As a dramatist he was extremely prolific: his plays numbered over 200 and were highly popular, not only in Germany but throughout Europe. His success, however, was seen as due less to any conspicuous literary or poetic ability than to his great facility in the invention of effective situations. He is at his best in comedies such as "Der Wildfang", "Die beiden Klingsberg" and "Die deutschen Kleinstädter", which contain cameos of German life. These plays held the stage in Germany long after the once-famous "Menschenhass und Reue" ("Misanthropy and Repentance", but known in England as "The Stranger"), "Graf Benjowsky", and ambitious exotic tragedies like "Die Sonnenjungfrau" and "Die Spanier in Peru" (which Sheridan adapted as "Pizarro") were forgotten.