Gas I and Gas II

Gas I and Gas II, two plays by G. Kaiser, which, with Die Koralle as first part, make up the so-called Gas-Trilogie.

Gas—Erster Teil was first performed in the Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf, on 28 November 1918, Gas—Zweiter Teil in the Neues Theater, Frankfurt, on 13 November 1920. They were published respectively in 1918 and 1920.

Gas I, which bears a motto drawn from Die Koralle, is in five acts. The Milliardärsohn from Die Koralle has taken over his inheritance, and now controls a gigantic gas manufactory, the symbol of technological power. He has devised a scheme of collective ownership and profit-sharing for those employed in this vast and efficient undertaking, but an irrational element intervenes. Though the formulae and calculations are correct and no mechanical defect exists, the gas explodes and shatters the works. Technology has extended beyond the control of man. The Miliardärsohn refuses for Man's own sake to rebuild the works and continue gas production, but the Engineer and the workers demand a resumption, a call which is backed in the end by the armed force of the state. The Milliardärsohn shoots himself, despairing of the regeneration of mankind, but his sister proclaims that she will give birth to the New Man.

Gas II, the final three-act play of the trilogy, looks into a mechanized future, in which men function as automata and the gas of the rebuilt works is produced for a war. In spite of the urgent appeals by a new figure, Der Milliardärarbeiter, for brotherhood and peace, the workers continue to manufacture the gas, and, after being defeated by the enemy, use the Engineer's new poison-gas missile. The play, and the world, end in one cataclysm.