About the work
Friedrich Wolf wrote "Cyankali" in 1929 in Eltville and Stuttgart; the play premiered on 6 September 1929 at Berlin's Lessingtheater under the direction of Hans Hinrichs. Wolf, himself a homeopathic physician active in the Socialist Doctors' Association, drew directly on his clinical experience with the effects of Germany's abortion law, §218.
Plot
The unemployed young factory worker Hete Fent becomes pregnant during a lockout and, denied medical help because of §218, turns to an illegal abortionist. She dies after taking an overdose of cyanide, while her mother and her partner Paul are arrested for assisting the illegal abortion.
Cultural significance
"Cyankali" became the most successful German-language play of the 1929/30 season and sparked a nationwide debate over §218; in February 1931 Wolf himself was briefly arrested on related charges before being released amid mass protests supported by figures such as Bertolt Brecht and Carl von Ossietzky. The production toured Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Soviet Union and was staged as far afield as New York, Moscow, Tokyo and Paris.