Arnolt Bronnen's first premiere evoked a great scandal, made his name known overnight, and garnered him a contract with a leading publisher. He moved from one success to the next, his works enjoying premieres in rapid succession and sustaining his status as the enfant terrible of the stage. Although generally characterized as an expressionist, Bronnen in his dramas manifests aspects of naturalism, surrealism, and epic theater and employs techniques of the film.

Bronnen was born Arnold Bronner on 19 August 1895 in Vienna to Martha Schelle Bronner and Ferdinand Bronner, a gymnasium professor and naturalist author. A childhood that was not particularly happy was followed by the study of law and philosophy in Vienna, a pursuit which he eagerly abandoned to enlist in the army during World War I. He served with a unit in the Dolomites until 1916, when he was wounded in the larynx, captured, and interned in Sicily...