Weiss, Peter (pā`tər vīs), 1916–82, German-Swedish dramatist, novelist, film director, and painter. Weiss's early novels Abschied von den Eltern (1961; tr. Leavetaking, 1962) and Fluchtpunkt (1962; tr. Vanishing Point, 1967) draw upon his emigration experience. His philosophic drama on the nature of revolution, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1964; tr. 1965), effectively conveys the atmosphere of an insane asylum as a social microcosm. Both this and his play Die Ermittlung (1965; tr. The Investigation, 1966) were international successes. The Investigation uses texts from the 1964 Frankfurt war crimes trial to demonstrate that the capitalist system, responsible for Auschwitz, exists in postwar society. Later works include the documentary drama Trotzki im Exil (1970; tr. Trotsky in Exile, 1971) and The Song of the Lusitanian Bogey (tr. 1970).

Bibliography

See studies by I. Hilton (1970), K. Vance (1981), and R. Ellis (1988).

Weiss, Peter (Ulrich)

(born Nov. 8, 1916, Nowawes, near Potsdam, Ger.—died May 10, 1982, Stockholm, Swed.) German playwright. After fleeing Germany in 1934, his family settled in Sweden. Weiss painted and made avant-garde films in the 1950s, then turned to fiction and drama, establishing a reputation in Germany with his novel Exile (1962). He won international acclaim for his play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1964; usually referred to as Marat/Sade), which addressed themes of individualism, revolution, and violence. Associated with the Theatre of Fact movement, he also wrote the documentary dramas The Investigation (1965), The Song of the Lusitanian Bogey (1967), and Discourse on Vietnam (1968).