About the work
A play in a prologue and five acts by Ernst Toller, with which Erwin Piscator opened his new Theater am Nollendorfplatz in Berlin on 3 September 1927; sets by Traugott Müller, music by Edmund Meisel, song lyrics by Walter Mehring.
Plot
The revolutionary Karl Thomas narrowly escapes execution in 1919 and is committed to a psychiatric asylum instead. Released eight years later, in 1927, he finds a republic that has betrayed his ideals; wrongly suspected of murdering a former comrade, he ultimately takes his own life.
Cultural significance
Piscator's use of film and revue elements made the play a landmark of Weimar-era political theatre; it was translated into nine languages and burned by the Nazis in 1933.