About the work
Der junge Medardus (Young Medardus) is a historical drama in a prologue and five acts that Arthur Schnitzler completed in June 1909, for the centenary of the Battle of Aspern. Hugo Thimig directed its premiere on 24 November 1910 at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Plot
Vienna in 1809, under French occupation: the young militiaman Medardus Klähr falls for Princess Helene von Valois, who first hates him, then seduces him and finally goads him into a plot to assassinate Napoleon. Medardus cannot go through with the plan; at a parade in Schönbrunn he accidentally stabs Helene instead and is shot by the French.
Cultural significance
According to Schnitzler's diary, the premiere was a resounding success with about thirty curtain calls; the play stayed in the Burgtheater's repertoire until 1932 and earned Schnitzler the Raimund Prize in 1914. Contemporaries such as Hofmannsthal and Georg Brandes also read it as a reckoning with the cowardice of the Viennese middle class under occupation.