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'Die Räuber' (The Robbers) is the first drama from German playwright Friedrich Schiller. It is divided into five acts, each consisting of two to five scenes. It was written towards the end of the ''Sturm und Drang'' movement, published in 1781, and premiered on January 13, 1782 in Mannheim, Germany.
The plot revolves around the conflict between two aristocratic brothers, Karl and Franz Moor. The charismatic but rebellious student Karl is deeply loved by his father. The younger brother, Franz, appears as a cold, calculating villain who plots to wrestle away the paternal inheritance from Karl. As the play unfolds, however, the motives for Franz's villainy prove to be complex, as does the seeming heroism of his "innocent" older brother.
Schiller raises many disturbing issues in his first play — a play that astounded the Mannheim audience and made its author an overnight sensation. He questions the dividing lines between personal liberty and the law, as well as probes into the modern psychology of power, the nature of masculinity, and the essential difference between good and evil. Verdi's opera of the same name, ''I masnadieri'', is based on Schiller's work.
It has also been said that ''Die Rauber'' was loosely based on real-life brothers John von Christophe Kasebier (taught to be a tailor by his father, and who himself trained his son who would become the personal tailor to the Count of Wittgenstein) and his brother Andreas Kasebier (a notorious crime boss in Germany during the early 18th Century). Eventually, Adreas was punished for his crimes by being sent to a Polish Prison. Later, he would be pardoned by Frederick the Great for doing the state the service of spying in Prague. He disappeared during his third period in Prague while collecting information.

Contents

Dramatis personae

Adaptations

Dramatis personae

★ 'Maximilian, Count von Moor' is the beloved father of Karl and Franz (also "Old Moor" mentioned). He is a good person at heart, but is weak and has failed to educate his two sons; he is thus responsible for the perversion of the Moor family. Because of this failure, family values are purged and invalid. Thus the Moor family is an analogy of the political State, a typical political criticism of Schiller's; the prince as a national father is particularly condemned.

★ 'Karl Moor', his older son, is a self-confident idealist. He is good-looking and well-liked by all. His emotions and impulses are rather feminine in nature (his feelings of deep love for Amalia, his general melancholy etc). Together with his gang of robbers, he fights against the unfairness and corruption of the feudal authorities, and in doing so, also becomes a disgraceful criminal and murderous arsonist, while believing his father to have banished him from his home after supposedly disgracing their family name. He loves Amalia and his offended homeland deludes itself. This despair leads to the urge to express and discover new goals and directions, and to realize his ideals and dreams of heroes. He breaks the law, for as he says, ''the end justifies the means''. He develops a close connexion with his robbers, especially to Scooter and Schweizer, but recognizes in the process the unscrupulousness and dishonor of Spiegelberg and his other associates. He is not an honest robber, as his bad deeds illustrate, and recognizes that his father it would not dishonour himself by forgiving him. Amalia, who becomes as a death toy to him, creates a deep internal twist in the plot and in Karl's persona, since he swore alliegance to the robbers that he would never separate from them, and since Schweizer and Scooter had died for his sake alone. In desperation, after the death father, he kills his lover and decides to turn himself in to the law, which shows that he the reasoning in his heart is still good.

★ 'Franz Moor', his younger son, is an egoistic rationalist and materialist. He is feelingless and cold. He is rather ugly and unpopular, as opposed to his brother Karl, but quite intelligent and cunning. He is not pure evil. However, since his father loved only his brother and not him, he developed a lack of feeling, which made the "sinful world" intolerable for his passions, and he consequently fixed himself to a rationalistic way of thinking. In the character of Franz, Schiller demonstrates what could happen if the moral way of thinking was replaced by the pure rationalization. Franz strives for power in order to be able to implement his interests.

★ 'Amelia von Edelreich', his niece is Karl's love and is a faithful and reliable person (to learn more of their relationship see "Hektorlied").

★ 'Spiegelberger' acts as an opponent of Karl Moor — driven by crime; in addition, he was nominated to be captain in Karl's robber band, and surprisingly not even the captain was envious. He tries to portray Karl badly among the robbers in order to become the captain, but does not succeed.

★ Schweitzer

★ Grimm

★ Razmann

★ Schufterle

★ Roller

★ Kosinsky

★ Schwartz

★ Hermann, the natural son of a Nobleman.

★ Daniel, an old servant of Count von Moor.

★ Pastor Moser

★ Father Dominic

★ A Monk.

★ Band of robbers, servants, etc.

Adaptations

''The Robbers'' (1913), directed by J. Searle Dawley and Walter Edwin
''Die Räuber'' (1957), Opera by Giselher Klebe