Nathan the Wise

Lessing’s Nathan is regarded as the embodiment of tolerance and charity. He is a man who has loved and suffered in his life, and who has been shaped by many terrible experiences. Nathan knows that there is no alternative to reason. He embodies the enlightened individual who trusts in his intellect and seeks to convince others of its value. Thus, “Nathan the Wise” is regarded as a major work of the Enlightenment. with English surtitles “Are Christians and Jews more Christian and Jewish than human?” Jerusalem in the 12th century during the Third Crusade: The Jew Nathan returns from a business trip. There he learns that his house has burned down and his daughter Recha has survived only by a miracle. A Christian Templar rescued the girl from the flames. When Nathan wants to thank him personally, the Templar reacts brusquely. As a Christian, he does not wish to associate with a Jew. Yet, since he is actually a sensitive, intelligent man, he does not shut out Nathan’s arguments that they are both, first and foremost, human beings and only then members of their respective religions. When the Templar then meets Recha again, he falls in love with her immediately and asks Nathan for her hand in marriage. But why does Nathan evade him? Daja, the Jew’s maid, finally reveals to him that Recha is only Nathan’s adopted daughter and is actually a Christian herself. A fact that deeply outrages the Templar and which he reports to his spiritual leader, the Patriarch. For him, this “abduction” of a Christian child from the religious community clearly warrants the death penalty. Meanwhile, Sultan Saladin has summoned Nathan, who is praised everywhere as a sage. He wants to know from him which religion he considers to be the true one. Nathan then tells him the parable of a ring that has the power to make one popular with both God and people. The “Ring Parable” has gone down in literary history as one of the most important pleas for the equality of the three world religions. A religion must live out its values here and now. Only through humane action and lived social practice does its validity prove itself. Lessing’s Nathan is regarded as the embodiment of the idea of tolerance and charity. He is a man who has loved and suffered in his life, and who has been shaped by many terrible experiences. Nathan knows: There is no alternative to reason. He embodies the enlightened individual who trusts his intellect and seeks to convince others of its value. Thus, “Nathan the Wise” is regarded as a major work of the Enlightenment. The peaceful coexistence of cultures and religions and mutual understanding are existential and remain one of the great challenges of our time. In 2008, Axel Vornam began his tenure as artistic director with “Nathan the Wise”—at that time in a production by Alejandro Quintana. Now, 18 years later, as his tenure at the Heilbronn Theater comes to an end, Vornam wishes to reexamine the play’s relevance today. by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing