Danton’s Death

Abstract

Danton’s Death must be the most remarkable first play in European culture. Until January 1835 there is no evidence that Büchner had ever tried his hand at the theatre, no history of family theatrical entertainments, no puppet shows like those staged by the boy Goethe. Yet in the space of five weeks Büchner wrote a play that, especially since the great production by Max Reinhardt in 1916, has become a classic of the German theatre and is seldom out of the repertoire of at least one major company. In its day the work won him little recognition: some thought he had merely edited his main source, Auguste Thiers’ Histoire de la Révolution Francaise (1823–27), into actable form; others, especially the Darmstadt middle class, were shocked and disgusted by the play’s obscenity and common language. The play certainly is blunt, but only, as Büchner argued, because its historical counterparts were blunt.