Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand. Ein Schauspiel

Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand. Ein Schauspiel, the play which first established Goethe's reputation on its publication in 1773. Its principal source was the Lebensbeschreibung des Herrn Götz von Berlichingen (see Berlichingen, Gottfried von), first published in 1731, long after its author's death in 1562. Goethe originally wrote the play in Frankfurt, in the autumn of 1771 after his return from Strasburg. Largely because of adverse criticism by Herder, he deferred publication and rewrote it in the early months of 1773, changing the title from Geschichte Gottfriedens von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand dramatisiert to its present form. The earlier version was not published until 1832, when it appeared in the Ausgabe letzter Hand. Götz von Berlichingen is constructed as a chronicle play with a multiplicity of scenes (56), a kaleidoscopic juxtaposition which was intended as an imitation of Shakespeare.

Götz, a robust man of action, is engaged in a feud with the Bishop of Bamberg, and in this opposition he is seen as the representative of freedom and natural right, whereas the Bishop stands for privilege, corruption, and retrogression. Götz captures the Bishop's knight Weislingen, who pledges peace with Götz, to whose sister Maria he is then affianced. But Weislingen, pressed by the Bishop and lured by the bewitching temptress Adelheid von Walldorf, breaks his word to Götz and to Maria, and reopens hostilities against his friend and former captor. Besieged by an overwhelming force, Götz surrenders on terms which are immediately breached by the victors. Götz is arraigned at Heilbronn, but is rescued with the help of his ally Franz von Sickingen. The Peasants' War (see Bauernkrieg) meanwhile breaks out, and Götz accepts under duress a command in the peasant forces. He is captured and condemned to death, but is saved by Maria, who persuades Weislingen to quash the death sentence. Weislingen perishes, poisoned by his mistress Adelheid, and Götz dies in prison with the words ‘Freiheit! Freiheit!’ on his lips.

The play was first performed in Berlin in 1774, and, although Goethe had conceived it as a play for reading, it was an immediate popular success, becoming one of the first landmarks of the Geniezeit or Sturm und Drang. Götz von Berlichingen was adapted for the English stage in 1965 by John Arden under the title Iron Hand.