Der zerbrochne Krug (The broken jug)

Judge Adam has a serious problem: not only does he have to cope with the severe effects of his nightly alcohol consumption, but also the sudden appearance of his superior Walter, who intends to take a close look at the administration of law in the provinces. Adam is forced to try a case publicly in court where he is obliged to investigate himself. He uses all the means at his disposal to conceal the fact that last night’s unknown assailant is none other than himself.

A copper engraving by Jean-Jacques André Le Veau showing a broken jug in a courtroom apparently prompted Heinrich von Kleist to propose a «poetic contest» among friends in 1802 which gave rise to «The Broken Jug». Taking a Dutch village court at the end of the 17th century as his model, Kleist shows that the effect of such institutions is not to dispense justice but to exercise power. A lawyer himself, the writer was harshly critical of contemporary legal practice. At its world premiere in Weimar in 1808 – directed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, no less – it met with a disgusted response from the local nobility, who described it as «moral leprosy». But Heinrich von Kleist, one of the foremost German writers, had proven his talent to both the public and the critics – with one of the greatest comedies in the German language which remains a popular choice on the stage two hundred years later.

Kleist’s disturbing comedy turns out to be an investigative drama that exposes sexual violence, the abuse of power and a criminal cover-up – and a veritable legal scandal. The writer and Literary Editor of «Die Zeit» Adam Soboczynski noted that «for Kleist, integrity and trust prove to be fragile, and his work is dominated by cunning masters of deception». Judge Adam is one of the most colourful examples of these, a character so modern that he seems like a creature of a present so rife in manipulation spawned by the ghost of history.