About the work
Farce with song in three acts by Johann Nestroy, premiered on 16 March 1853 as a benefit performance for the author at the Carltheater in Vienna.
Plot
The vindictive former grocer Peter Dickkopf manipulates those around him with lies and forged letters to extort money and settle old scores. He sabotages his stepson Casimir's secret love for Leni in order to marry him off to the wealthy Frau von Lärminger instead, while also deceiving Franz about a lottery inheritance. Casimir sees through the scheming, uncovers an embezzled inheritance belonging to his mother, and foils Dickkopf's plans, who in the end is left to marry only the vegetable seller Körbl.
Cultural significance
The play flopped at its premiere and was dropped from the schedule after just the second performance; critics counted it among Nestroy's weaker works and were particularly unsettled that the popular comic actor Wenzel Scholz played an unscrupulous villain.