Professor Bernhardi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Professor Bernhardi (1912) is one of the best known plays written by the Viennese dramatist, short story writer and novelist Arthur Schnitzler. It was first performed in Berlin at the Kleines Theater in 1912, but banned in Austria until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a result of World War I.

Professor Bernhardi is a Jewish physician in a cooperative private clinic. A young woman in his care is dying of sepsis following an abortion, but is unaware of her true condition. A priest summoned by a nurse wishes to give her last rites, but Berhardi refuses him admission in order that the girl may not be made aware that she is about to die. While Berhandi and the priest are arguing, the girl dies, having been first told by the nurse that the priest is there.

A press campaign and public outcry reflecting the intense anti-semitism of the time causes Bernhardi to be forced from the clinic he helped found, and sentenced to two months in prison. However, the imprisonment is not severe, and the play ends with a philosophical discussion of the case between a relaxed Berhardi and a friend following Bernhardi's release.

In the words of the Oxford Companion to German Literature "the work is Schnitzler's best comedy [sic], penetrating in its satire and serene in its ending." It is regularly performed in the German speaking world and occasionally in other countries to this day. (Sources: the text of the play and the Oxford Companion to German Literature, s.v. "Professor Bernhardi".)