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How did Georg Kaiser’s plays address technology and modern civilization?

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Edvard Munch: The Scream — Expressionism *The Scream*, tempera and casein on cardboard by Edvard Munch, 1893; in the National Museum, Oslo.

As a leading German Expressionist dramatist, Georg Kaiser utilized his plays to explore the intense conflict between humanity and the modern world of money and machines.1

In his works, Kaiser employed the characteristic Expressionist method of grotesque distortion to critique the perceived soullessness of modern technology and the dehumanizing subjection of workers to industrial machinery. His Gas trilogy—comprising Die Koralle (1917), Gas I (1918), and Gas II (1920)—specifically depicts the struggles of gas production workers who attempt to seize control of technology. These plays illustrate how the workers are ultimately thwarted in their efforts to establish a utopian society defined by brotherhood and peace.231

By presenting these themes, Kaiser’s stage served as a vehicle to challenge the audience's consciousness regarding the impact of the machine age on human existence.23