Wallenstein

Wallenstein, three-part historical drama by Friedrich Schiller, performed in 1798–99 and published in 1800. The three parts consist of a one-act prelude titled Wallensteins Lager (“Wallenstein’s Camp”) and two five-act tragedies, Die Piccolomini and Wallensteins Tod (“Wallenstein’s Death”), written in blank verse. In addition there is a prefatory poem.

Schiller’s epic masterpiece penetrates the psychology of Albrecht von Wallenstein, the general of the armies of the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years’ War. The prelude relates Wallenstein’s rise to power and has many comic scenes of military life. Die Piccolomini reveals Wallenstein’s treasonous plot to defect to the enemy and thereby gain power, and Wallensteins Tod chronicles Wallenstein’s tragic end, the desertion of his troops, and his assassination. Schiller portrays Wallenstein as a complex man who is so carried away by the lust for power that he believes himself to be above the ordinary definitions of good and evil; at the same time he is a man of great courage and dignity.