SOURCE: Tunstall, George C. “Hebbel and Georg Kaiser: Reflections of Judith in Die Bürger von Calais.” Colloquia Germanica 14, no. 2 (1981): 130-41.

In the following essay, Tunstall determines Hebbel's influence on the playwright Georg Kaiser.

Der Weg zu meiner That geht durch die Sünde! …

Ist nicht meine That so viel werth, als sie mich kostet?

—Hebbel, Judith¹

Although the critical literature on the Expressionist playwright Georg Kaiser contains occasional mention of the possibility that he was influenced by Friedrich Hebbel, very little cogent or concrete evidence has been offered to substantiate such a claim.² Wilhelm Steffens was the most recent critic to stress Hebbel's significance for Kaiser, but his statements are based almost exclusively on Wolfgang Paulsen's comments in his monograph on the dramatist from 1960.³ There Paulsen had maintained: “Kaisers eigenthche dramatische Ansätze aber liegen doch, nach Überwindung der ersten Anregungen aus der Welt Hofmannsthals und Georges...