About the work
Magnus Garbe is a tragedy in three acts by Gerhart Hauptmann, begun in February 1914 in Santa Margherita and completed in September 1915 at Wiesenstein. Hauptmann withheld the play for decades; in 1939 the Nazi authorities barred a planned production at the Baden-Baden theatre as "politically inopportune". It was not staged until after Hauptmann's death, premiering on 4 February 1956 at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus under Karl-Heinz Stroux.
Plot
Around 1530, in a free imperial German city, the respected mayor Magnus Garbe falls victim to the Inquisition when his pregnant wife Felicia is accused of witchcraft. Despite his efforts to protect her, Felicia is tortured and sentenced to death; on their last night together the couple take their own lives.
Cultural significance
The play draws on Hauptmann's long engagement with early modern witch trials and, scholars argue, his shock at the First World War. After the 1956 premiere, Der Spiegel called it Hauptmann's "bitterest tragedy".