Georg Kaiser.

If there is one common thematic denominator in most of Kaiser’s plays, it is his deep concern about the quality and dignity of human life in a changed socioeconomic environment. Kaiser exposes the shortcomings of his characters (and of the societies in which they live) when he depicts individuals as well as entire groups of humans as victims of war, selfishness, hatred, greed, or technological “progress.” These are the forces that militate against a better form of life that has not yet advanced beyond the stage of a Utopian dream. Yet Kaiser offers a glimpse of this better world, of a nonrepressive and just society ruled by the “new man” who achieves (often through personal sacrifice) a morally superior form of existence. This new life will not be the result of revolutions or political maneuvers but will—such was Kaiser’s hope—eventually spring from an inner metamorphosis of the individual.