Schönherr, Karl

Schönherr, Karl (1867–1943), Austrian dramatist, whose powerful and realistic dialect dramas of Tyrolean peasant life won him widespread recognition. Writing under the influence of Anzengrüber but with a closer affinity to naturalism, his themes are the peasant's clinging to the soil, as in Erde (Earth, 1907), his bewilderment in the face of religious conflict, as in Glaube und Heimat (Faith and Homeland, 1910), and his defence of the Tyrol against Napoleon's armies, as in Volk in Not (People in Need, 1915). A doctor himself, Schönherr wrote about the medical profession in Der Kampf (The Struggle, 1920) and the psychology of pretence in Der Komödiant (The Comedian, 1924). A sound instinct for the theatre which did not hesitate to use the resources of melodrama where necessary was the basic element in his success.