Max Frisch, Biedermann und die Brandstifter: Ein Lehrstück ohne Lehre [Biedermann and the Firebugs: A Morality Play without a Moral]

Judith Ricker-Abderhalden (University of Arkansas)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1952 - 1958

Places

Switzerland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Burlesque
Play

Resources

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Biedermann und die Brandstifter. Ein Lehrstück ohne Lehre

[

Biedermann and the Firebugs: A Morality Play without a Moral

] is the seventh play by the most celebrated Swiss writer of the 20th century, Max Frisch. Before its realization for the Zurich Schauspielhaus in 1958,

Biedermann

had already a remarkably successful history as a radio play. General readers today, and especially students of literature in German, are as likely to encounter the text of the original 1952 radio version as they are the later adaptation for the stage. The related but distinct dramatic genres account for interesting formal differences between the texts, which makes it important in any analysis to specify the version under discussion.

As is the case for several other Frisch texts, the nucleus of Biedermann was

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1404 words

Citation: Ricker-Abderhalden, Judith. "Biedermann und die Brandstifter: Ein Lehrstück ohne Lehre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13981, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Max Frisch, Biedermann und die Brandstifter: Ein Lehrstück ohne Lehre [Biedermann and the Firebugs: A Morality Play without a Moral]

Dates

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