Peter Weiss

Peter Weiss (1916-1982) is a German-Swiss author, playwright, filmmaker, and political activist best known for his internationally acclaimed works of fiction, drama, and film.

Born in the German city of Berlin in 1916, Weiss studied architecture, art, and art history before devoting himself to a career as an author and director of stage plays. After leaving Germany due to the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Weiss settled in Switzerland and went on to serve in the Swiss Army as a mapmaker during World War II.

Weiss’ early plays, often in the form of farce or satire, were produced in German, French and English-speaking stages. After experiencing firsthand what he described as “the obscene communal rituals of Hitler’s rule”, Weiss wrote a series of plays, in which he claimed the responsibility of the Nazi regime, such as his one-act play "The Investigation" (1965) - a play which re-examined the events of the Auschwitz concentration camp trials of the early 1960s.

By 1959, Weiss was firmly settled in the prominent avant-garde theatre of the early 1960s in Berlin, writing plays, directing, and designing sets. In 1962, he joined forces with other like-minded actors and directors in establishing the Schaubühne, or "New Plays Theatre", a large, open-plan theatre which instantly cemented his reputation as a vivid and controversial dramatist, covering themes such as the morality and meaning of justice during the Nazi period. With his plays, Weiss aimed to create a “dialogue with history” in order to uncover the roots of present-day political malaise in his native country.

Weiss is also remembered for his essay Die Ästhetik des Widerstands (The Aesthetics of Resistance), a three-part novel of thousands of pages, comprising of two drafts and a definitive version, formed in 1975 and published in 1977. Through the eyes of a thesis writer, the novel narrates the story of the German resistance movement in the 1930s and 40s along with reflections on the concept of freedom and individual experience in a cruel and oppressive society.

Throughout his career, Weiss wrote and directed several films, gaining international acclaim and awards. His best-known film adaptation is of Marat/ Sade (1967), a play he himself had also written and staged. The movie was awarded both the Karl Malden Prize and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film.

In 1979, Weiss was granted the prestigious Berliner Kriegsverdienstkreuz for his work in cinema and theatre, in the arts and the humanities, for his struggle for the socialist cause, and for his writings in West German newspapers and magazines. During the last years of his life, Weiss focused on the possibilities of creating a film documentary to document the struggles of the German working class. The documentary project never materialized, and Peter Weiss died in 1982 from heart failure.

Examining the tragedy, oppression and injustice of our world, Peter Weiss’ work is timeless and persists today in both its literary and political dimensions. His influential contribution to theatre, documentary, film and the political discourse of his time, has earned him the right to be remembered as one of the greatest German-speaking authors of the twentieth century.