Der arme Vetter

arme Vetter, Der, the second play by E. Barlach, completed just before the 1914-18 War, published in 1918, and again in 1919 with 36 lithographs. Consisting of 12 tableaux, it was premièred in Hamburg in 1919.

Set on an Easter Sunday at a location by the Elbe, where city dwellers are enjoying their traditional outing, the play proceeds from a triangular situation demonstrating its Expressionist theme, the search for spiritual renewal. It involves Hans Iver, a disillusioned outsider, Siebenmark, a city man dominated by his business routine, and his fiancée Lena Isenbarn. Iver, wandering aimlessly in the sand dunes contemplating suicide, recognizes in Lena a kindred spirit. Soon afterwards he shoots and badly wounds himself. In the pivotal sixth scene, set at an inn, Lena stands up for Iver against Siebenmark and the mocking crowd. In the grotesque figure of ‘Frau Venus’ who heads the crowd, this scene introduces the climax of the play's fundamental argument. Having suffered with dignity the ridicule of ‘Frau Venus’, a veterinary surgeon in disguise, Iver opens his wound and bleeds to death. Still unable to control his consuming jealousy, Siebenmark challenges Lena to choose between him and the dead man. She unhesitatingly dissociates herself from Siebenmark and his world.

The play includes a variety of figures enhancing its local milieu, drawn with deft touches and grotesque humour. The exquisite lithographs add to the pervasive blend of realism and symbolism, highlighting the latter, which is also evident in the title's reference to the relationship between Iver and Siebenmark; it replaces the less resonant original title Osterleute.