Fleißer based the play on real incidents, and worked on it in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht.
The play was revised and produced at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin in March and April 1929, directed by Brecht and Jacob Geis, with set-design by Caspar Neher.
The play depicts the immorality and selfishness which can be found in small towns, as well as how the militia can disrupt the lives of civilians.
As a result of its depiction of a sexist society, the play did not win much sympathy from her fellow inhabitants of Ingolstadt and Fleisser suffered massive unpopularity in her home town after it was published and produced.
She sternly believes in individuality and living of means, with no reliance upon the male sex.
He asks a friend, Zeck for advice and is told that men should be cold in love ("In der Liebe muß ein Mann kalt sein").