About the work
One-act farce conceived by Johann Nestroy as an intermezzo, based on an anecdote published in the Viennese entertainment paper 'Der Humorist' on 28 December 1843 ('Die gewonnene und doch verlorene Wette'), whose original setting in New York Nestroy relocated to Vienna. It premiered on 16 March 1844 at the Theater in der Leopoldstadt as a benefit performance for the author, inserted between two other pieces of the evening.
Plot
A simple-minded but stubborn innkeeper has received 5,000 gulden through a lease. Two swindlers posing as English lords bet him that he cannot spend a quarter of an hour saying only 'Hinüber – Herüber' in time with a pendulum clock without being distracted. He sticks to it through every interruption, even the threatened engagement of his daughter, while the swindlers make off with his wallet; a poor waiter catches the thieves and wins the daughter's hand as his reward.
Cultural significance
Contemporary critics received the slight piece kindly but without literary pretension: Der Wanderer called it 'really nothing at all, yet it entertains'. Wenzel Scholz's pointed performance as the doggedly repeating innkeeper drew particular praise.