About the work
Ernst Toller's first stage work, an expressionist "struggle of a man" told in tableaux, written largely in 1917/18 during and after his time at the front. Karlheinz Martin premiered it on 30 September 1919, with Fritz Kortner in the lead, at the newly founded Berlin theatre Die Tribüne.
Plot
The sculptor Friedrich enthusiastically goes to war but is profoundly shaken by the destruction and contempt for human life he witnesses there. Out of this experience of suffering and death he arrives at a pacifist worldview built on brotherhood, which he ultimately proclaims in public.
Cultural significance
The premiere is regarded as one of the key events of expressionist "proclamation drama" and established Toller's reputation as a political playwright, while also establishing Die Tribüne as a stage for the new directorial style.