Der Kontrabaß
play by Patrick Süskind
Der Kontrabaß (The Double Bass) is a play by Patrick Süskind. The monologue in one act premiered in 1981.
History
The manuscript of the play by Patrick Süskind dates back to 1980. The monologue in one act, the author's first work for the stage, premiered at the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich on 22 September 1981 and was performed by Nikolaus Paryla, who also directed. Thanks to its minimal staging requirements, the play was successfully reproduced at most German-language theatres. In the 1984–85 season, it was the play with the most performances on German language stages, playing more than 500 times.
Printed in 1984 by the Diogenes Verlag, the play was translated into English by Michael Hofmann and published in 1987 by Hamish Hamilton. This translation was awarded the Schlegel-Tieck Prize in 1988. The play also appeared in the Bloomsbury Classics series. It has been translated into 28 languages, including Arabic, French, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish, and Persian.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Der Kontrabaß” is play by Patrick Süskind. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Kontrabaß, play and Patrick, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “play by Patrick Süskind” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1194921. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1980, 1984 and 1987.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Der Kontrabaß”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Der Kontrabaß primary sources, Der Kontrabaß archive and Kontrabaß research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Der Kontrabaß”?
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- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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This entry incorporates text from “Der Kontrabaß” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.