Marieluise Fleißer

The title of this article contains the character ß. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Fleisser.

German stamp issued in 2001 in the Women in German history series

Marieluise Fleißer (German pronunciation: [maˌʁiːluˈiːzə ˈflaɪsɐ]; 23 November 1901, Ingolstadt – 2 February 1974, Ingolstadt) was a German author and playwright.

Her best known works are two plays, Purgatory in Ingolstadt (1924) and Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1926). Bertolt Brecht persuaded the director Moriz Seeler to stage the first play, which Seeler retitled; Fleißer's original title was The Washing of Feet. Brecht then encouraged her to write Pioneers. Premiered in Berlin, the plays caused a scandal, especially in her home town, and were attacked by the Nazis, who had not yet come to power.

Fleißer was rediscovered in the 1970s by a later generation, among them the theatre director Peter Stein and the playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz. Pioneers in Ingolstadt was adapted as a TV film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1971.

The plays were given their London premieres at the Gate Theatre, London, in 1990, directed by Annie Castledine and Stephen Daldry.

Bibliography

• Gérard Thiériot, "Marieluise Fleisser (1901–1974) et le théâtre populaire critique en Allemagne", Berne et al., Editions Peter Lang, Collection Contacts, Theatrica 19, 1999

External links

• Marieluise Fleißer at Fembio.org

Persondata
Name	Fleisser, Marieluise
Alternative names
Short description	German author
Date of birth	23 November 1901
Place of birth	Ingolstadt, Germany
Date of death	2 February 1974
Place of death	Ingolstadt, Germany