Michael Kramer

Michael Kramer, a play in four acts by G. Hauptmann, first performed in November 1900 in Berlin, and published in the same year. Kramer is an artist whose greatest ambition is to paint a huge picture of Christ with a crown of thorns in order to convey his idea of the synonymity of art and religion. He sees in Beethoven the symbol of this fusion. Because he knows in his heart of hearts that he lacks the genius of a Beethoven, he stakes his hopes on Arnold his son, Arnold, however, who has grown into a young man with a misshapen figure, squanders his great gifts on caricatures expressing his contempt of the world. His resentment against his domineering father leads in the central scene to a breakdown of their relationship, while his figure makes him feel that he is a laughing-stock in the eyes of women and of society. His sense of inferiority turns into aggressiveness, and, when he is mocked by one of the regulars at Bänsch's inn, he draws a revolver (which is wrenched from him), flees to escape arrest, and drowns himself. His father now pronounces a funeral oration for his son, whom he has underrated during his lifetime and now idolizes with excessive pathos. Through Kramer's daughter Michaline and his former pupil Lachmann, Hauptmann brings variations into the play's central theme, the artist in society.