Heldenplatz

<p>Thomas Bernhard is widely considered to be one of the most important German playwrights in the post-war era. Highly acclaimed, he has written over twenty plays and novels and gained a reputation as one of Austria’s most controversial authors.<br><br><br><br><br>Bernhard wrote <i>Heldenplatz </i>in 1988 as a response to the fiftieth anniversary of the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria by Hitler’s Germany. Highly controversial in Austria, the play concerns a Jewish professor who returns to Vienna after the Second World War and discovers that his fellow Austrians are as anti-semitic as ever.<br><br>‘Heldenplatz’ is the square in Vienna where the Austrian-born Hitler made his first speech after the Anschluss.<br><br><br><br><br>In <i>Heldenplatz</i>, Bernhard's final play, he explores the shared isolation of people who have lost their bearings, along with most of their illusions.</p>