Wallenstein

Wallenstein is the popular name for a trilogy of dramas in blank verse by the German writer Friedrich Schiller, completed in 1799 and published in 1800. It comprises Wallenstein's Camp, a lengthy prologue in one act, and the two five-act plays The Piccolomini and Wallenstein's Death. Schiller himself grouped them into two parts: Wallenstein I, made up of the prologue and The Piccolomini, and Wallenstein II, which corresponds to Wallenstein's Death. The work loosely draws on real events of the Thirty Years' War and focuses on the decline of General Albrecht von Wallenstein, commander-in-chief of the imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire, who fails at the height of his power when he rebels against Emperor Ferdinand II. The action takes place some sixteen years after the war began, in the winter of 1633 to 1634, and opens in the Bohemian city of Pilsen, where Wallenstein has his base. In the final scenes the story moves to Eger, where the general was assassinated on 26 February 1634.

Wallenstein's Camp, the shortest part, serves as an introduction and reflects the views of the rank and file: soldiers enthusiastic about their commander, who grants them great freedom, even to plunder, but also a peasant who complains of theft and a monk who condemns the soldiers' conduct. The monk's sermon draws on a book by the Augustinian preacher Abraham a Sancta Clara, and some scenes later inspired Verdi's opera La forza del destino. At the close, the soldiers grow alarmed at the emperor's plan to place part of the army under Spanish Habsburg command.

The Piccolomini shifts the conflict to the officers. Most prefer Wallenstein to the emperor, and the general, unwilling to surrender part of his forces, secretly negotiates with the Swedes to pressure the court into making peace. His closest associates encourage him, yet one of his own men, Octavio Piccolomini, is secretly spying for the emperor. The plot is complicated by the love between Octavio's son Max and Wallenstein's daughter Thekla, both fictional creations of Schiller.

Wallenstein's Death brings the conflict to its tragic end. After his negotiators are intercepted, Wallenstein resolves to break with the emperor and form an official alliance with the Swedes, but Octavio manages to turn nearly all of the commanders against him. Max, torn between loyalty to the emperor, admiration for Wallenstein and love for Thekla, abandons the general and dies in a doomed battle. Wallenstein is murdered by Butler's henchmen, while Octavio receives the rank of prince from the emperor. Schiller portrays a complex man, driven by ambition yet also brave and dignified.

The plays premiered at the Weimarer Hoftheater between 1798 and 1799 under Goethe's direction. The trilogy, often reduced to a single play that could be performed in one evening, entered the German classical repertoire and has received acclaimed productions throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.