Watch on the Rhine won the Drama Critics Circle Award in 1941. The citation for the award praised Lillian Hellman for creating "a vital, eloquent and passionate play about an American family, suddenly awakened to the danger threatening its liberty." The critical reception for Watch on the Rhine during its run on Broadway was quite positive. Although that initial acclaim has been tempered over the years, many critics still admire the play's compelling themes and finely-crafted structure.

Scholars have noted the timely and historically significant material in Watch on the Rhine . Pat Skantze, in an article on Hellman for Modern American Women Writers, notes in a discussion of Kurt's decision to kill Teck that "the question of culpability is exactly what Hellman would be faced with when she appeared before HUAC [the House Un- American Activities Committee]." Brooks Atkinson in a review in the New York Times...