About the work
Friedrich Wolf wrote "Professor Mamlock" in 1933 while in exile, shortly after the Nazi seizure of power. Its world premiere took place on 19 January 1934 at the Kaminski Yiddish theatre in Warsaw, performed in Yiddish under the title "Der gele Fleck"; the German-language premiere followed on 8 December 1934 at the Zurich Schauspielhaus, staged under the altered title "Professor Mannheim" out of consideration for Swiss neutrality.
Plot
The Jewish surgeon Hans Mamlock initially believes in the strength of German democracy and forbids politics in his clinic. As Nazi persecution intensifies between May 1932 and April 1933, he is dismissed and publicly denounced; ruined and humiliated, he ultimately takes his own life, while his colleague Dr. Ruoff finally recognises the danger.
Cultural significance
The play became one of the most widely performed works of German exile literature and one of the earliest dramatic responses to Nazi antisemitism. A 1938 Soviet film version and a celebrated 1961 East German film adaptation, among the first postwar German films to address the persecution of Jews, spread the material further and earned international recognition.