About the work
Five-act comedy by Ludvig Holberg, his first and also the first comedy written in Danish, commissioned for the newly founded theatre at Lille Grønnegade in Copenhagen. It premiered there on 25 September 1722.
Plot
The Copenhagen tinker Herman von Bremen neglects his trade in favour of endless political arguments at the tavern. When a few fellow citizens trick him into believing he has been elected mayor, he is hopelessly overwhelmed by the sudden official duties and petitioners, and nearly despairs over his imagined office. When the truth comes out, Herman recognises his own presumption and returns, chastened, to his real trade.
Cultural significance
By Holberg's own account, the play kept audiences laughing from beginning to end, and demand was so great that many had to remain standing outside the theatre. The word "Kannegießerei" ("tinker's talk"), for ill-informed political chatter, derives from this comedy and remains current in both German and Danish today.