The article offers the first analysis of the epistemological content of Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz’s socio-critical theater theory. This approach opens up new interpretative insights into the author’s plays, and it establishes a comprehensive correlation between two major components of his work, which are often considered incompatible: his ideas of social reform and his dramatic texts. Lenz’s primary aim is not a critique of the aristocratic power and the coercions of bourgeois life. Rather, he seeks to lay the epistemological foundation for societal change, i. e. to provide the audience with the correct ‘viewpoint’, from which societal problems can be grasped and eventually solved. The example of ‘Die Soldaten’ and the ‘Berkaer Projekt’ shows how both parts of Lenz’s oeuvre complement each other: his dramatic work presents a diagnosis of societal problems and his reformist work offers a solution to challenging societal conditions.