68 Transactions Texas Academy of Science. — 1908 - 1909 . 
a series of visions of a poorhouse girl, where Hauptmann’s socialism, 
as in “Die Weber,” again appears. The only owrk that bears the 
stamp of greatness is “Die Versunkene Glocke.” Here we breathe 
a purer atmosphere, and portions of the play are full of beauty and 
poetry, but the leading thought again shows Nietzsche. The Bell- 
founder Henry will never become an ideal figure for his fellowmen, 
for he is the incipient Nietzschean Uebermensch. He sacrifices wife 
and children to his ambition, or selfishness, seeks his fortune with the 
waternymphe, Rautendelein, who probably represents nature, and 
nature-worship, or pantheism. He makes the mistake of represent- 
ing something which the Uebermensch never does. Henry curses 
Rautendelein, goes to his former home, is stoned from there and dies 
in despair. Neither Nietzsche nor science would have tolerated such 
an ending. They would have had him complete on the mountain the 
temple begun to pantheism and proclaim from thence the pantheistic 
gospel to his followers. The play would then have been a well- 
rounded drama, and Henry would have been Nietzsche’s Uebermensch, 
instead of the pitiful figure he now is. And yet Hauptmann’s ad- 
mirers place him beside Goethe! 
Sudermann portrays the ethical conditions of his times, a wise 
choice, but it takes a masterhand to do it, a task that Sudermann is 
not equal to. He takes Zola as model, rather than Ibsen, though the 
latter has also influenced him. Marriage, love, domestic life are his 
favorite themes, and he handles these well from the view-point of 
naturalism. “Sodom’s Ende,” “Die Heimat,” etc., are genuine 
French pieces; even “Johannes,” the Biblical story of John the Bap- 
tist, is not free from this feature, as we see in the character of Salome 
and the dance scene. His dependence on Nietzsche, however, is best 
seen in his “Die drei Reiherf edern, ” written to counteract the won- 
derful effect of Haptmann’s “Die Versunkene Glocke.” It is alle- 
gorical from beginning to end. “Prinz Witte” is another attempt 
at Nietzsche’s Uebermensch, but a failure. He is too vacillating, too 
thoroughly naturalistic, too modern, or rather too much like the mod- 
ern German period, too lifeless, has no initiative, no object in life, 
is too problematical. His esquire, ‘ ‘ Lorbass, ’ ’ comes hearer being the 
hero, the Uebermensch. He represents Nietzsche’s Herrenmensch, or 
the might makes right principle of the “Struggle for Life” theory 
and “Selection of the Fittest” proposition. 
Enough has been said to show the trend of the paper and the in- 
fluence of science and philosophy on literature. The scientific and 
philosophical parts are based on the study of specialists in each field, 
and their thoughts have been used freely. Credit will be given in 
the full article. 
