Bürger Schippel

(Citizen Schippel) by Carl Sternheim.

   Premiered 1913. Sternheim's comedy is ostensibly about an amateur singing contest, but its true subject matter is class distinctions and prejudice. Three respectable members of the middle class need a tenor for their quartet to help them win first prize again in a local competition. They grudgingly recruit a local masonry helper (Schip-pel) because of his superb singing talent. The quartet wins the prize, and one of the original three offers his sister to Schippel as a token of his gratitude; Schippel feels insulted, because the sister is "damaged goods," having recently slept with a local aristocrat. Yet one of the other original three singers agrees to marry the sister and challenges Schippel to a duel from a misplaced desire to preserve her honor. Schippel agrees to the duel and slightly wounds his challenger. Everything ends happily, and Schippel becomes a fellow snob with his acceptance into "good society."