About the work
Demetrius is an unfinished play that Friedrich Schiller worked on in 1804/05; only the first act was fully completed, the rest remained sketches when his death in 1805 ended the work. The Weimar court theatre brought the fragment to the stage in that unfinished state on 15 February 1857.
Plot
Demetrius claims to be the surviving son of Tsar Ivan IV and wins the Polish diet's backing for a campaign against Boris Godunov. Once he seizes power, he must face that he was merely a tool of a noble faction; even his own mother, Marfa, refuses to acknowledge him as her son.
Cultural significance
The fragment probes the individual's responsibility within history and is often read as a reflection on Napoleon's rise. Its incompleteness shaped its afterlife: several writers attempted an ending, including Gustav Kühne, whose version was also staged in 1857, while even Goethe abandoned his own attempt to finish it.