Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 - March 9, 1918) was a German playwright.

He was born in Hanover and had a number of jobs before working in cabaret and becoming a playwright.

His first major play, Frühlings Erwachen (The Awakening of Spring, 1891), which concerns sexuality and puberty, caused a scandal. The "Lulu" plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904) are probably his best known pieces; the two were the basis for Alban Berg's opera Lulu, and Die Büchse der Pandora was the basis for the film Pandora's Box (1929). Wedekind's work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes, especially towards sex, is considered to anticipate expressionism.