About the work
Das weite Land is a five-act tragicomedy by Arthur Schnitzler, completed in 1910 and published by S. Fischer in 1911. Its actual premiere took place on 2 November 1910, in Russian translation, at the Novyi Dramatichesky Theatre in St. Petersburg; the German-language premiere followed only on 14 October 1911, simultaneously at eight theatres, including the Lessingtheater in Berlin and the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Plot
The light-bulb manufacturer Friedrich Hofreiter and his wife Genia outwardly live a modern, tolerant marriage in Baden bei Wien, in which both have affairs. When Hofreiter learns of Genia's involvement with the young naval officer Otto von Aigner, he challenges him to a duel and kills him – although he himself had always championed sexual freedom.
Cultural significance
The play is regarded as one of Schnitzler's sharpest studies of bourgeois double standards: the whole drama turns on the contradiction between Hofreiter's professed tolerance and his lethal jealousy. Unusually, its world premiere was not in German at all, but in Russian translation.