About the work
Marieluise Fleißer's first play, a drama in six scenes she wrote at 22 under the title "Die Fußwaschung" (The Washing of the Feet). On the recommendation of Bertolt Brecht, whom she had met through Lion Feuchtwanger, it was renamed and premiered in a single matinee on 25 April 1926 at the Junge Bühne of the Deutsches Theater Berlin, directed by Paul Bildt.
Plot
Among Catholic secondary-school pupils in the small town of Ingolstadt, the pregnant Olga is abandoned by her boyfriend Peps. The outsider Roelle tries to exploit her situation but is mocked by the clique for it; both end up ostracised.
Cultural significance
Critics such as Alfred Kerr and Herbert Ihering praised the play after its premiere, but it then fell into obscurity for about 45 years, rediscovered only in the 1970s, notably through Rainer Werner Fassbinder.