About the work
Der einsame Weg (The Lonely Way) is a drama in five acts that Arthur Schnitzler worked on between 1900 and 1903 under changing working titles (Bachelors, Egoists). It premiered on 13 February 1904 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, with Albert Bassermann in one of the lead roles.
Plot
The painter Julian Fichtner meets Gabriele again after years apart; he once abandoned her, and she has since married Professor Wegrath. Only on her deathbed does Gabriele tell their son Felix that Julian is his real father, and the son rejects him. In a parallel strand, daughter Johanna's love for the terminally ill family friend von Sala ends, like his, in suicide.
Cultural significance
Schnitzler noted mixed but partly "highly honourable" reviews after the premiere. The play is considered one of the key works among his Viennese society dramas around 1900, anticipating with its motif of the illegitimate son and old-age loneliness a theme he would deepen in later works.