About the work
Michael Kramer is a naturalist play in four acts by Gerhart Hauptmann, written in 1900. It premiered on 21 December 1900 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Hauptmann drew on his own failed training as a sculptor at the Breslau art academy.
Plot
The painter and academy teacher Michael Kramer only recognises the artistic talent of his rebellious son Arnold after Arnold, broken by ridicule, exclusion and his own inability to conform, takes his own life. His diligent but overlooked daughter Michaline remains in the shadow of father and brother throughout.
Cultural significance
The play is a key work of German Naturalism, staging the conflict between artistic ambition and bourgeois narrowness as well as between generations; only the son's death opens the father's eyes.