In the mid 1960s, in the wake of the renaissance of interest in Ödön von Horváth in German-speaking countries, the critical Volksstück (folk play) rose to new prominence. This genre, whose aim is to be intelligible to as many people as possible, has achieved notice through the plays of Martin Sperr, Peter Turrini, Franz Xaver Kroetz, and Felix Mitterer.

Mitterer was born in Aachenkirch, Tirol, on 6 February 1948, to Adelheid Lamprecht, whose husband, a farmer, had been killed in World War II. According to Mitterer, his mother already had "ungefähr" (around) twelve or thirteen children; all he knows of his father was that he was from Romania. Since his mother was too poor to look after this horde of children, Felix was "hergeschenkt" (donated) before his birth to Michael and Juliana Mitterer, farm laborers who later adopted him.

Mitterer traveled...