The summary of the contents of Die Räuber offers you a detailed overview of the structure of the drama, the most important scenes and possible interpretations.
I. Act – The Exposition
First Scene
- Franz Moor forges his older brother Karl Moor’s letter in order to deceive their father.
- Karl is said to have committed countless crimes in Leipzig, which forced Count Maximilian von Moor to reject his eldest son as a pedagogical measure.
- He asks Franz to write a letter in reply to Karl, but it shouldn’t sound too harsh.
Franz Moor approaches his father Maximilian, Count von Moor, and tells of a letter from Leipzig that he received from a friend of his older brother Karl Moor. In this, the comrade writes that Karl is in serious trouble. He has accumulated 40,000 ducats in debt, deflowered the daughter of a wealthy banker, killed her fiancé in a duel and is now on the run from justice – even a bounty has been put on his head.
Count von Moor is shocked by Karl’s misdeeds and Franz continues to persuade him to cast out his eldest son. What old Moor doesn’t know, however, is that Franz forged the message from the alleged friend from Leipzig and made Karl’s genuine, conciliatory letter disappear.
Count von Moor asks Franz to write a reply in which he disowns and disinherits his eldest son. With this he hopes for a purification (repentance) from Karl and intends to get in contact with him again as soon as he has returned to the right path. He therefore warns Franz not to formulate the letter too harshly and dismissively, which Franz ignores, however, since he wants to bring about a complete rift between father and son.
Key scenes and approaches to interpretation
Beginning of the family conflict:
The family conflict is opened in the first scene by an intrigue by the youngest Moor.
Franz: «Let me first step aside and shed a tear of pity for my lost brother – I should keep quiet forever – because he is your son; I should veil his shame forever – for he is my brother.»
Franz tries to convince his father to disown Karl.
Franz: «Now tell me – if you didn’t have to call this son yours, you would be a happy man?»
Franz: «- I must be a pathetic bungler if I hadn’t even managed to detach a son from his father’s heart…»
Franz’s plan:
Franz Moor feels disadvantaged by nature (ugly appearance), social regulations (second son) and family circumstances (father’s lack of love and preference for Karl).
He sees the seizure of power as the only way to assert oneself in society and to achieve respect.
Franz: «The right dwells with the overpowerer, and the limits of our strength are our laws.»
Franz wants to take revenge for the rejections and disadvantages he has experienced, so he comes up with a plan.
Franz: “I want to eradicate everything around me that restricts me from being master. Lord must I be that I wrestle with violence what I lack the kindness for.»
The plan seems to be working as Count Moor wants to turn his back on his eldest son.
Old Moor: «I will write to him to take my hand off him»
second scene
- Karl Moor sits in a bar with his buddy Spiegelberg and complains about society – he sees no meaning in his life.
- The remaining friends show up and hand Karl the letter written by Franz, in which his father finally turns his back on him.
- Spiegelberg suggests that the others form a gang of robbers.
- The group wants to name Karl as their captain, which he accepts out of frustration with his father. Together they swear an oath of loyalty until death.
In a pub on the border of Saxony, Karl Moor sits with his friend Spiegelberg and complains about the «weak castrati century». He does not want to bow to the laws of society and sees no ideal in his worldview to which he can devote himself.
Spiegelberg then offers him to join the wild student life at his side, but Karl sees no point in this either. He would much rather return to his parents’ house and be reconciled with his beloved Amalia. He had already sent a letter to Count Moor asking his father’s forgiveness.
Now Karl’s other friends (Schweizer, Grimm, Roller, Schufterle and Razmann) arrive at the pub and hand him the supposed letter from his father. After Karl learns that Count Maximilian von Moor has rejected him and will under no circumstances forgive him for his actions, he drops the letter and storms out of the pub.
The friends read the letter and Spiegelberg takes the opportunity to convince the others of his plan to found a gang of thieves with him as the head and settle in the Bohemian Forest. Now Karl returns and explains to the others that his world has collapsed – he demons all of humanity and, agitated, accepts his friends’ offer to become the leader of the gang of thieves.
He formulates an oath that is to bind the individual members together until their death, and the friends swear allegiance to Karl as the robber captain. Only Spiegelberg is secretly holding back, bitter that the group didn’t choose him as their leader.
Key scenes and approaches to interpretation
Karl’s world pain / Complaint to society:
Karl Moor does not want to bow to the laws of society because he believes that they limit his actions and actions, but also his thinking.
Moor: «I shall press my body into a breastplate and tie my will into laws. The law has spoiled what would have become the flight of an eagle to a snail walk. Law has not yet made a great man, but liberty breeds colossi and extremities…»
Karl does not see any ideal in his world view and is therefore without prospects.
Moor: «Fuck about the sluggish castrati century, useless for anything but chewing back the deeds of the past and harassing the heroes of antiquity with comments…»
He is an inwardly torn person, because on the one hand he wants to act freely (in the sense of an eagle’s flight), but on the other hand he also wants to return to the natural idyll of his father’s house.
Moor: «In the shadow of my father’s groves, in the arms of my Amalia, a noble pleasure lures me. Last week I wrote to my father asking for forgiveness, I didn’t hide the slightest thing from him, and where there is sincerity there is also compassion and help.»
The final rejection by his father puts Karl in a mad state.
Moor: «My spirit thirsts for deeds, my breath for freedom – murderers, robbers! – with this word the law was rolled under my feet – people have hidden humanity from me since I appealed to humanity, away then from me sympathy and humane mercy! – I no longer have a father, I no longer have love, and blood and death shall teach me to forget that anything was ever dear to me!”
Karl Moor is led by his friends to the decision to become a robber captain. This fundamentally distinguishes him from his younger brother, who is made up of his own calculated calculation.
third scene
- Franz confesses his love to his brother’s lover, Amalia, and rails against Karl.
- Amalia sees through the wrong game and sends Franz away.
- He shows his true colors and swears revenge.
At Moor Castle, Franz tries to win Amalia over by confessing his love for her and badmouthing his older brother. He even claims Karl traded the diamond ring Amalia gave him for love for a prostitute. He also told Franz that he wanted to leave her forever. But Amalia sees through Franz’s lies and sends him away. He shows his true colors, swears revenge and leaves a desperate and sad Amalia behind.
Key scenes and approaches to interpretation
Amalia’s love for Karl:
Amalia sees through the wrong game and remains true to her love for Karl.
Amalia: «Ha! Karl! Now I recognize you again! You are whole! all! everything was a lie! – Don’t you know, villain, that Karl can’t possibly become that?”;
Amalia: «Oh, I know you, from now on I know you – and you wanted to be like him? Should he have wept for me in front of them? Before you? Before he would have written my name on the pillory! Go the moment!”
The younger brother fails with her as a schemer and his inferiority to Karl is made clear again.
Amalia follows her heart and remains pure as the only main character of the drama.
II. Act – The increase
First Scene
- Franz considers how he could kill his own father and get rid of his older brother forever.
- For this he manipulates the servant Hermann to help him with his treacherous plan and promises him the hand of Amalia as a reward.
In his room, Franz considers how he could overthrow the Count von Moor from the throne. He is even willing to poison his own father in order to become sole ruler. The court servant Hermann appears and Franz incites him against his brother and the Count von Moor by pretending that Karl had made fun of his illegitimate origin.
For Hermann’s help against Karl and old Moor, Franz promises him Amalia’s hand. To do this, he had to pretend to be Karl’s comrade in front of the Count and bring him the message that his firstborn had died. After he hands Hermann the fake evidence of his brother’s death and he leaves the scene, Franz shows his true colors again: he never intended to do without Amalia.
Key scenes and approaches to interpretation
Instrumentalization of Hermann
Franz’s decision to kill his own father and get rid of his older brother is emphasized again.
Through psychological manipulation he manages to get the servant Hermann on his side in order to poison his own father and finally disinherit his brother. In doing so, he plays a double game, since he supposedly promises him Amalia’s hand.
Franz: «Do you really wish I were Lord? (…) Then you should be covered in gold, just as you are there, and rattle along the streets with four horses, really, you should!”
Franz: “Once the ox has pulled the grain cart into the barn, it has to make do with hay. You a stable maid and no Amalia»
Like his older brother, Franz Moor does not want to be stopped by anything or anyone in his pursuit of the great deed.
Franz: «Should my soaring spirit be chained to the snail gears of matter?»
second scene
- Amalia tries to console the old Count von Moor about the absence of his eldest son.
- The servant Hermann appears disguised in front of the…