117. “Hans”

Drama in three acts by Max Dreyer
Performance at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin

Shortly before this performance [Schnitzler evening], the Deutsches Theater staged a drama in three acts by Max Dreyer: "Hans". A scholar lives with his daughter on an island in the North Sea. He is the director of a biological institute. The daughter has become a learned girl at her father's side. She microscopes and makes scientific discoveries like a German professor. It is not clear who is smarter: the father or the daughter. A former boarding school colleague comes to visit their friend from their girlhood. The father falls in love with this friend. The daughter is displeased to see that someone is coming between her and her father. Scholarship has also driven all sense of natural feeling out of Hans - as the scholar calls his daughter Johanna. A former officer and now a painter loves Hans. She treats him rather disgustingly. He would accept the fact that she does not praise his paintings. But he cannot tolerate the tone in which she does so. The father's relationship with his girlfriend becomes particularly repugnant to Hans when she learns that this girl has had a child out of wedlock. But the father loves the girl and is loved again. To ensure that everything goes well, Hans suddenly discovers her heart. She falls in ardent love with the painter. Now she can understand everything. Even her father's love. An arbitrary development of plots and constructed characters. Template characters and a dull plot that is based on traditional prejudices.