Kaiser Heinrich der Sechste

Kaiser Heinrich der Sechste, a five-act tragedy in mixed verse and prose by C. D. Grabbe. The second of his two Hohenstaufen plays, it continues the action of the first, Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossa, and was completed a few months later, in 1829, and published in 1830. It depicts the reign of the Emperor Heinrich VI from his accession upon the death of his father, the Emperor Friedrich I, to his own sudden death, through heart failure, at the height of his power. The middle act, with the death of the aged Heinrich der Löwe, Duke of Saxony, in the presence of Heinrich VI at Brunswick, sees the consolidation of the Emperor's power in Germany and the reconciliation of Welf and Waiblinger. At the end of the play Heinrich stands on Mount Etna, visualizing in his insatiable drive for power the realization of his plan to make the imperial crown hereditary, to abolish the Papacy, and to conquer the whole of Italy and Africa. When death suddenly comes to him, he foresees the disintegration of his lands and uses his last breath to curse his existence.