II, Theaterstücke 25, Professor Bernhardi. Komödie in fünf Akten (Ärztestück, Junggesellenstück), Seite 940

P S S
25. Proft.or Bernhardi box 31/8
CHARACTERS:
Professor BernhardiProfessor for Internal
Medieine and Director of the Elizabethinum.
Doctor EbenwaldProfessor of Surgery
Vice Director.
Docter CyprianNerve Specialist
Doctor Pflugfelder.Eye Specialist
Docter Filitz.Diseases of Women
Docter Tugendvetter.mSkin Specialist
Docter Loewenstein Specialist on Children’s
Diseases.
Doctor SchreimanThroat Specialist
Doctor AdlerPathological Anatomist
Doctor Oscar Bernhardi, Doctor Kurt Pflug¬
feldermAssistants to Bernhardi
Doctor Wenger Assistant to Tugendvetter
HochroitzpointnerStudent of Medicine-—
Interne.
Sister LudmillaA Nurse
Doctor Flint Minister of Education
Privy-Counselor WinklerDepartment of
Education.
Franz Reder. Priest of the Church of Holy
Florian.
Doctor GoldenthAttorney-at-law
KulkaeeeeeemmnA Reporter
Vienna—in 1900.
INTRODUCTION.
The incidents upon which the play is found¬
ed occurred in Vienna some time ago and creat¬
ed a great deal of feeling. For that reason,
the Censor forbade the production of the play
in Austria. I shall leave it to the judgment of
the reader, whether the ban of the Censor is
in any way justified.
It is well known that Schnitzler's father was
a distinguished physician and Professor at the
University of Vienna; and that his son Arthur
followed his father’s profession for several
vears. Undoubtedly this experience helped
him in his deep understanding of human na¬
ture; vou can feel the deft surgeon’s hand with
its soft touch, the discernment of the diagnos¬
tician in his wonderful analysis of woman’s
soul.
In almost all of Schnitzler’s plays, the rem¬
iniscences of his professional life are immor¬
talized in the character of a doctor through
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Das
whose lips as in Der Einsame Weg.
„ 7
5 (Frei¬
Weite Land,“ Der Ruf Des Lebens,?
wild,? Das Maerchen,?’ the poet expresses his
own viewpoint, his philosophy.
The only woman in the play is a nurse who
speaks only a few lines in the first Act. Four¬
teen physicians are the other characters.
With remarkable technique, these fourteen
doctors are introduced: the hvpocrite, the in¬
competent, the enthusiast, the Zionist, the anti¬
Semitic ones, the false and the real philan¬
thropists. Even on the stage, it is difficult
to distinguish them in their diversity.