About the work
Drayman Henschel is a naturalistic five-act play by Gerhart Hauptmann. He wrote it in 1897–98 while staying in Dresden, Berlin and on Lake Como, finishing it in September 1898 in Berlin-Grunewald; it premiered on 5 November 1898 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.
Plot
Set at a Silesian inn, the Grey Swan, in the 1860s, the play follows drayman Wilhelm Henschel, who promises his dying wife never to marry the maid Hanne Schäl. Pressed by the innkeeper Siebenhaar, he breaks the promise after her death; Hanne proves domineering and unfaithful, and Henschel, undone by guilt, takes his own life.
Cultural significance
In 1899 Hauptmann received the Grillparzer Prize for the play for a second time. It is regarded as one of his most tightly constructed character dramas and has been filmed several times, most notably in 1956 with Heinz Rühmann in the title role.