About the work
Gerhart Hauptmann's social drama „Before Sunrise" was premiered by the Freie Bühne in Berlin in 1889 and provoked a theatrical scandal. It is regarded as the founding work of German Naturalism. With documentary precision Hauptmann depicts the moral decay of a Silesian peasant family suddenly enriched by the discovery of coal.
Plot
The idealistic social reformer Alfred Loth comes to a Silesian village whose farmers have grown rich overnight from the coal beneath their fields — and are perishing from the new wealth, idleness and alcohol. Loth lodges at the estate of the farmer Krause and falls in love with his daughter Helene, the only one who has remained unspoiled. Helene sees in Loth her rescue from her degenerate home. But Loth, a convinced adherent of the contemporary doctrine of heredity, learns from the doctor that the family is consumed by alcoholism. Out of fear of „tainted heredity" he abruptly abandons Helene. In despair and left alone, Helene takes her own life, while in the house the birth of a child and a new drunken stupor coincide.
Cultural significance
The premiere of „Before Sunrise" is regarded as the birth of Naturalism on the German stage. Hauptmann broke with idealist theatre, gave unvarnished voice to alcoholism, heredity and social misery, and introduced the „second-by-second style". The play made the future Nobel laureate Hauptmann famous overnight and remains a key work of theatre history.