Hermann Sudermann

The Storm Komrade Sokrates centers on aging radicals who were leaders in German student revolution of 1848. The main characters are Dr. Hartmeyer, a Dentist and Dr. Marcuse, the local Rabbi. After their arrests, they were sent to the Eastern border of Germany to live a life in quasi exile. These leaders, and the other former revolutionaries, are now attempting to pass their ideals [liberty, equality and justice] on to their sons, but fail miserably. Their sons are not interested the aspirations of the previous generation and, instead, one of the Dentist's sons declares his desire to gain wealth and social status, and the other, in the spirit of Bismarck's nationalism, joins the student military corps. The Rabbi's son takes the opposite point of view. He fails to see any future in a society where anti-Semitism is on the rise and is looking for a way out. When the play was produced in 1903, the author was threatened with imprisonment because the script was viewed as an attack on the monarchy and the noble class. This is the first English edition of the play.