Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was one of the most influential of all playwright
s, the author of deeply moving dramas that explored human fears, desires and ide
als. Written at the age of twenty-one, "The Robbers" was his first play. A passi
onate consideration of liberty, fraternity and deep betrayal, it quickly establi
shed his fame throughout Germany and wider Europe.
"Wallenstein", produced ni
neteen years later, is regarded as Schiller's masterpiece: a deeply moving explo
ration of a flawed general's struggle to bring the Thirty Years War to an end ag
ainst the will of his Emperor. Depicting the deep corruption caused by constant
fighting between Protestants and Catholics, it is at once a meditation on the un
bounded possible strength of humanity, and a tragic recognition of what can happ
en when men allow themselves to be weak.
