Don Juan und Faust
1828 drama by Christian Dietrich Grabbe
Don Juan und Faust is a German stage play by Christian Dietrich Grabbe, published in 1828, with music by Albert Lortzing. As its title suggests, it involves a meeting between Faust and Don Juan, with Grabbe intentionally seeking comparisons with Goethe's Faust and Mozart's Don Giovanni. Its 1829 premiere at the Landestheater Detmold made it the only work of Grebbe's to be performed in his own lifetime - contemporaries criticized its pessimism, though it was praised by Kierkegaard in his Either/Or for being "founded on evil" in an extraordinary way.
Plot
Don Juan goes on several amorous adventures in Rome with his servant Leporello. He courts Donna Anna, daughter of the Spanish ambassador, and provokes a duel with her naïve noble fiancé Octavio due to his own selfish desire and lust for genius. He stabs Octavio and then Anna's father after the latter tries to avenge Octavio's death. However, before Don Juan can re-capture Donna Anna, she is abducted by the magician Faust. The devil had appeared to Faust in the form of a knight and bought his soul in return for a promise of supernatural knowledge and power. However, the devil has not made good on the promise but instead inflamed Faust's soul with love of Donna Anna.
Faust thus takes Donna Anna to a castle in the Alps and tries to win her love, but she resists him just as she has already resisted Don Juan and calls on Faust to release her.
“Don Juan und Faust” enters the record as 1828 drama by Christian Dietrich Grabbe. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Juan, Faust and drama can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1239218. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1828 and 1829.
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