''The Beaver Coat'' (german: Der Biberpelz) is a
satirical play
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* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
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by
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He rece ...
premiered in Berlin in 1893.
The work is an example of a German
naturalistic ''Diebskomödie'', or 'thief's comedy'. The drama takes place "somewhere in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
... around the end of the eighties" (referring to the 1880s). In line with Naturalistic principles of the use of everyday speech forms, a large number of the characters speak in a
Berlin dialect.
Plot
Mother Wolff is a rather resolute cleaning lady. She is married to a somewhat clumsy and timid ship carpenter by the name of Julius Wolff. The story begins as she comes home with an illegally
poached roebuck, where her daughter Leontine is waiting for her. Leontine has fled her service to the pensioner Krüger because she was told in the late hours of the night to bring a pile of wood into the stable. Mother Wolff, constantly considerate of her own reputation, wants to send her daughter back. But as she learns that the work concerns a "beautiful dry club", she allows Leontine to stay the night with the intention of acquiring the wood herself.
While she sells the roebuck that she claims she discovered dead to a sailor on the
river Spree
Spree may refer to:
Geography
* Spree (river), river in Germany
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* ''The Spree'', a 1998 American television film directed by Tommy Lee Wallace
* ''Spree'' (film), a 2020 American film starring Joe Keery
* "Spree" (''Numbers' ...
named Wulkow, her youngest daughter Adelheid explains that Mr. Krüger was recently given a valuable
beaver coat from his wife. Wulkow then exclaims that he would without question pay sixty
Taler for such a
fur coat
Fur clothing is clothing made from the preserved skins of mammals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing, and is thought to have been widely used by people for at least 120,000 years. The term 'fur' is often used to refer to a specific i ...
. Mother Wolff quickly realises that with this sum of money she could pay off a large part of her debt. She thus decides to steal the coat in order to sell it to Wulkow.
After the theft, Krüger reports to the police that his wood and his coat have been stolen. However, the head official von Wehrhahn feels only annoyed by this complaint. He is only interested in uncovering, "sinister people and elements that are politically outlawed or hostile to the crown or aristocracy." Given this, Krüger strives to have the private tutor Dr. Fleischer arrested for
Lèse majesté. The doctor receives around twenty various newspaper and meets regularly with free thinking literary figures.
Although the head official has on several occasions not given any attention to Krüger, he decides to come once again in order to carry out his plan. This time, however, Mother Wolff is also present. She cleverly wards off any suspicion towards her, however. The comedy ends without the theft ever being solved.
In his
tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a seriou ...
''The Red Cock'' (german: Der rote Hahn), which was first performed in 1901, Hauptmann continues several themes prominent in ''The Beaver Coat.''
References
*Gerhart Hauptmann. (1893). ''Der Biberpelz. Eine Diebskomödie'', Berlin: S. Fischer – Taschenbuch-Ausgabe bei Ullstein.
* Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaver Coat, The
Plays by Gerhart Hauptmann
1893 plays