DOI: 10.20375/0000-0011-48d9-8
title: Die Räuber

description: Abstract: 
The modern drama production by Friedrich Schiller tells the story of a young man, Karl von Moor, who is forced, due to intrigues from his brother, Franz, to turn his back on his family and start his career as the head of a gang of robbers. As he thinks his father disowned him, he neglects to live a socially conformed life. By leaving, his brother Franz manipulates not only their father but also Amalia, Karl’s fiancé, and Karl is about to lose all of them.

Details: 
Franz and his father, whom five women in white dresses play, are the last members of the family von Moor in the castle. Since his son Karl is studying in another city, the father has aged due to his preoccupation with the life of Karl. Franz, who desires his father’s love, which was never given to him, wants his father to disown his son Karl. Karl ought to be the better and more intelligent brother and be loved by everyone. To disgrace his brother, Franz invents a story about his brother’s abandoned lifestyle, which includes debts over 40.000 Ducats and the myth that Karl impregnated the daughter of a wealthy banker. Franz manipulates the father to curse his son and disinherit him due to the behaviour invented by Franz. “Swim who can swim, and whoever is too plump, let him sink, “mentions Franz while celebrating his first step to being the only heir of his family. 
While at a party, a letter is given to Karl. It is from Franz, who tells him never to come back to his father’s house because he will not find forgiveness. Karl is depressed and expresses his grief because he never loved someone like his father. After this shock, Karl abandons society’s conform path of life and finds a gang of robbers to form his world and lead another life. He wants a “social revolution” with human rights that support the necessities of the people. Karl believes that everything in the world he formerly belonged to is an illusion.
While Karl is recovering from his father’s rejection, his fiancé Amalia mourns the loss of her beloved Karl. Franz wants to make her his wife, but he is rejected whenever he tries to come closer to her. Not only Amalia’s rejection but also the still-alive father holds Franz back “from the richness.” He creates the lie that Amalia loved Hermann but was “stolen” from him by Karl. By telling Hermann this lie, Karl now has a partner in crime to develop and elaborate his intrigues. Hermann and Franz create the story of Karl’s heroic death on the battlefield. Hermann was the last person he talked to. While entering the father’s house, Hermann finds the fiancé Amalia beside the sad father, who is preoccupied with cursing his son. Both are shocked by the “news” from Hermann and as he shows a portrait of Franz that Karl is said to have had with him when he died, “Franz, never abandon my Amalia,” says a letter given to the family by Hermann. Due to the depression of the death of his son, the father dies, and Franz tries to take power over Amalia. As she still refuses to be his wife, Franz abuses Amalia sexually and wants to be her “master.”
While his beloved family thinks he has died, Karl is still the master of the robbers. They are not only robbing monasteries and abusing the nuns. Moreover, the gang goes on developing more cruel commitments. The “pursuit of happiness” causes this act, which often only serves the robbers themselves. Meanwhile, Hermann wants to tell the truth about everything that happened and talks to Amalia, who first thinks that the fact that Karl is alive might be a lie. “The lie of Franz has become a truth; Karl is the head of a gang of robbers,” expresses Hermann. 
After hearing of his brother’s intrigue, Karl returns to his father’s house. Disappointed by Amalia, who has been made Franz’s wife, and angry at his “stupid” brother, Karl admits to himself that his father’s house and his own life are in ruins. The play ends with Karl’s wish “not to go on creating the world,” as nature would have forgotten people. “There is no more nature. We are changing, and we are losing our freshness.”