About the work
Der Schützling (The Protégé) is a farce with songs in four acts by Johann Nestroy, which he premiered as a benefit performance for himself on 9 April 1847 at the Theater in der Leopoldstadt. Nestroy originally planned the piece under the working title "Protection"; it weighs advancement through connections against advancement through one's own merit, set against the backdrop of early industrialisation.
Plot
Former teaching assistant Gottlieb Herb refuses to advance through patronage and insists on succeeding purely through merit. The factory owner's wife, Pauline von Waldbrand, secretly supports him with money and arranges his promotion to factory director, while a rival candidate schemes against him. In the end the misunderstandings are cleared up, the schemer is exposed, and Herb is reunited with his beloved Julie.
Cultural significance
Contemporary critics welcomed the play as a move away from Nestroy's coarser farces towards a more serious, socially engaged comedy addressing the strains of early industrial society; it played to near-daily houses through May 1847.