Heimat (play)

Heimat (Home) is an 1893 play by the German dramatist Hermann Sudermann.

Its success in the 19th century is traceable to at least four causes: The technique is a clever combination of the naturalism of Ibsen and the methods of the drame à thèse familiar in the works of Dumas fils.

The conventional raisonneur — in the person of the Pastor Heffterdingk — mediates between Magda and her father, and debates with each the problems presented by the situation of a prodigal daughter who returns home after a life of moral irregularity but operatic success.

Magda's father fails to recognize the difference between a child with duties and a human being with rights, and Magda reveals no conception of the fact that duty is only in part a social obligation and is in its innermost essence an obligation of self-respect.

In 1917, the play was adapted into the American silent film Magda, directed by Emile Chautard.