The Robbers Paperback – February 25, 2017

This is no ode to joy. Peace never made a great man, says the main hero.This wild, violent and crazy stage play was Friedrich von Schiller's `debut', his breakthrough to fame as a literary writer. At the time it was not at all clear that he would be a professional writer -- and then he became one of Germany's proverbial `poets and thinkers'. He was trained as a medical doctor at a military academy, and he was inclined towards philosophy; practical healing had no appeal for him, he needed the `speculation', the `idea'.(We are idealists and would be ashamed to be shaped by things, rather than have our ideas shape the world of things.) The Robbers were the brainchild of a young doctor without life experience, who had grown up, so far, under the strict discipline of the school, run by a dictator, in Wuerttemberg. After finishing his studies, he was forced to work as army doctor.The play was born, as a contemporary writer said, from the copulation of subordination and genius. It is an invention out of lack of experience and in anticipation of it.The play is about brotherly hatred, fatherly love, jealousy, deceit, maliciousness, criminal energies, betrayal, murder, suicide. There is a lot of drama in this drama.A man loves one son better than the other. The loved one, away as a student, disappoints. The other one plays up the problem, fabricates lies, steals a letter from brother to father, fakes a letter to the brother, tries to rape the betrothed of the brother... The `good one', in despair and believing himself betrayed by his father, becomes a gangster. Gangs were a common problem at the time, a few would-be Robin Hoods were known in Germany. Where does it end? Certainly nowhere idyllic. Gallows are growing on every hill side.The most often quoted line of the whole play is `Franz heisst die Kanaille?', meaning: is Franz the name of the scoundrel? And what I learned from reading this odd piece of high literature for the first time since ages: the phrase comes with a question mark. I would never have guessed and I remembered wrongly.When the play was a hit, Schiller ran away from his confinement in military life and eventually made a stellar career as Goethe's equal. Amazing. The man had not one iota of humor. His philosophy was full of pathos. His plays are full of serious thoughts. He was fed on Shakespeare and lived on him; the Robbers are a clear sign of admiration, but not quite up to par. They are ridiculous and grandiose at the same time.The school of literature that Schiller co-created was called Sturm und Drang, which seems to be generally translated as 'storm and stress'. That strikes me as inadequate. Why not try a combination of turmoil, unrest, ferment?

For my opinion is "The Robbers" the best classic by Friedrich Schiller. The story is about a family, an old lord, his two sons, the older one who is handsome, brave and popular and the younger one who is ugly and jealous, he intrigues through the whole story. When the older one travels to study, his brother invents terrible stories about harlotry and murder, so his father who is near to death, bans his older son though he didn't want to . Without faith and security of his family, Karl, the older son, decides to arrange a group of robbers with another man who can't see any way out of his misery. The robbers murder and steal, but in Karl's way, he's the leader of the robbers, and he just steals money, other materials and food from rich and ignorant peole and gives most of this stuff to poor people. This Robin Hood way of stealing he describes as balancing justice. But soon he discovers that this life isn't the life he wants to lead till the end of time. The robbers were persecuted and he is home sick, but most at all he misses his girlfriend Amalia von Edelreich who is now idolzed by Franz , the younger brother. The story continues with new intrigues, lies and it's much spoken about god's will, that the bad ones will come into hell and what happens after the death. The love between brothers, fathers and lovers is also really important.It's often told, but I can't regret it, that this classic hasn't lost a bit of it's passion and pressure, it could really continues in our time, too.

Read for school, not my taste, but good message.

Fredrich Schiller’s (1759-1805) “The Robbers” was his first play. He wrote it in 1781 when he was 21 years old. He called the play “a novel in a dramatic form.” There are primarily three plots in the play. In one, an evil younger brother tricks his father to disown his older better-liked sibling who was the first-born, and then causes his father’s death so that he could inherit his father’s wealth. He argues that evil exists in the world, good does not exist, and his behavior is natural and not wrong. In the second plot we see how the first-born, angered at being disinherited, unable to resolve the situation that his brother created, become the reluctant leader of a band of cutthroats, murderers, and robbers. They kill and rob many people. The third plot focuses on a woman that is in love with the first-born, and he with her, while the villainous brother does all he can to bed her, including lying that his brother is dead.The play raises questions: Can a man who is by nature moral, who has moral thoughts, wants to do what is right, who was driven to kill and rob by acts beyond his control, who repents, ever be able to reenter society and have a quiet loving life? Can repentance erase the evils committed by a murderer when he was driven to kill? In the play, the first-born rebels against the law that causes his problems, but the rebellion does not work because, according to the play, one cannot escape from the law, one must obey the law even though it harms people. Is this view reasonable? Does it foretell the Nazi era? When and how does rebellion work?Although a first literary attempt by Schiller, the play is good, and the English translation is readable and enjoyable. Schiller’s writings are praised in Germany today, and German school children are required to memorize portions of his writings.

Started out powerful. Weak ending.

I suppose I should't expect much from a free download - but this was a disappointing first attempt. It was a courrier font, badly formatted difficult to read. At least I have the text - and the price was right.