Point of View

"Danton's Death" by Georg Buchner is a four-act play and the story is told in the lines of the many characters. Buchner was a German who first studied the sciences at the University of Giessen.

That Buchner was interested in the French Revolution could not have come as a surprise to anyone who knew him. He collaborated with Pastor Weidig, a liberal activist, on a pamphlet entitled, "The Hessian Courier." The pamphlet urged the peasants to revolt against heavy taxation. Although an associate was arrested, there was not enough evidence against Buchner to arrest him.

After his scrape with the law, he was sent home from the university and in secret wrote "Danton's Death" or "Danton's Tod" (in German). Buchner fled to Strasbourg, France, when he learned that he was going to be arrested. He never returned to Germany after that. After escaping arrest twice, Buchner...