About the work
Der Stellvertreter (The Deputy) is a five-act play by Rolf Hochhuth, subtitled 'a Christian tragedy'. It premiered under Erwin Piscator's direction on 20 February 1963 at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm (Freie Volksbühne) in West Berlin.
Plot
The young Jesuit priest Riccardo Fontana tries in vain to persuade Pope Pius XII to publicly protest the deportation of Rome's Jews; when the Pope remains silent, Riccardo pins a yellow star to his own cassock in protest and voluntarily accompanies deportees to Auschwitz.
Cultural significance
Hochhuth's debut sparked the biggest theatre controversy in the Federal Republic's history to date, made the charge of papal silence internationally known, and is regarded as a founding work of documentary theatre. Costa-Gavras adapted the material into the film Amen. in 2002.