Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Die Physiker [The Physicists]

Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1962

Places

Switzerland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Friedrich Dürrenmatt completed his “Komödie in zwei Akten” (comedy in two acts) Die Physiker [The Physicists] in 1961. The global annihilation of humanity was an imminent threat: in the wake of the Korean war, the frantic armaments race and increasing belligerence had brought the superpowers to several confrontations (the U-2 incident, the Berlin crisis, the Cuba showdown, the Berlin wall etc.) and to the brink of nuclear Armageddon. In an age obsessed with the invention of ever more devastating weapons of mass destruction, the question of the scientists’ responsibility towards humanity at large was very much in the fore of public discourse, especially since the United States had used atomic bombs in 1945 in Japan w…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1725 words

Citation: Knapp, Gerhard P.. "Die Physiker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 August 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=15458, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Save this article