Friedrich Hebbel
Agnes Bernauer
"Agnes Bernauer" by Friedrich Hebbel is a drama written in 1851. When Duke Albrecht of Bavaria secretly marries Agnes Bernauer, a commoner's daughter, he defies both his father and the political future of Bavaria. His father Duke Ernst faces an impossible choice: accept a marriage that threatens the duchy's stability and succession, or sacrifice an innocent woman to preserve the state. This realistic tragedy explores the devastating conflict between personal love and political necessity, between individual desire and the demands of power.