Were the Germans quoting Hamlet to describe their existential struggle in the Great War?

Question

To illustrate how the Great War came to be viewed increasingly by Germans as an existential struggle, Max Hastings, in his Catastrophe: 1914: Europe Goes to War (p. 542), describes how

The words sein oder nichtsein — 'to be or not to be' - were constantly on people's lips.

Does this phrase, as implied, enter the German language from Hamlet? Were the Germans indeed quoting Shakespeare as they fought the British? Or does the phase have an independent origin — if not in English, at least in German?

Answer 1

Shakespeare has always been very popular in Germany. Versions of his plays were performed by German players already during Shakespeare's lifetime. In the nineteenth century there were more performances of Shakespeare's play in Germany than there were in Britain.