Le Visiteur

Le Visiteur (German: The Visitor) is a one-act play by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt . It takes place on April 22, 1938, shortly after the occupation of Austria by the National Socialists on March 11, 1938, the so-called " Anschluss ".

The two main characters are Sigmund Freud , the founder of psychoanalysis and avowed atheist , and the visitor, who in the course of his conversations with Freud reveals himself to be God . Freud is already marked by his severe cancer. The dialogue between the two protagonists unfolds after Freud's daughter Anna was taken away for questioning by a National Socialist henchman. While the visitor tries again and again to dispel Freud's skepticism, Freud finds himself in an inner duel. On the one hand - or so it seems - he would like to find his way back to faith in God, especially since he is reflecting on his Jewish origin in view of the reprisals by the National Socialists, on the other hand he tries to prove during the entire conversation with the visitor that it is impossible for him to be God himself and ultimately sticks to his atheism. After his daughter returned unscathed from the custody of the Gestapo , at Anna's insistence and under pressure from the Nazis, Freud decided to emigrate to Paris (which actually took place on June 4, 1938) and drove the unknown visitor away by opening a pistol shoots him. Whether the visitor is actually God and whether Freud finds his way back to faith remains open in the end. "Le Visiteur" was premiered in Paris in 1993; the first German-language performance under the title "The Visitor" took place in 1996.