Die Wupper: Schauspiel in 5 Aufzügen

Set amid the smoky banks of the Wupper, the first act of this five‑part drama opens in a cramped workers’ quarter of an industrial town. The stage is alive with the clatter of factories, a narrow river bridge, and the modest homes of families whose lives are tangled with ambition, faith, and survival. Grandfather Wallbrecker urges his grandson Carl to trade scholarly dreaming for the certainty of a trade, while Carl imagines a future as a pastor, promising both respect and a comfortable seat for his aging kin. Around them, colorful personalities—fierce factory owners, wistful youngsters, a wandering peddler, and a towering lady named Rosa—populate the streets, hinting at the clash between old‑world values and the restless energy of modern labor.

Through sharp, dialect‑rich dialogue, the play sketches a community where personal dreams collide with social expectation, and where the river’s steady flow mirrors the undercurrent of change. Listeners are drawn into a vivid portrait of early‑20th‑century working life, setting the stage for the conflicts that will ripple through the subsequent acts.