Nicodemus Frischlin: Sämtliche Werke / Band III,2: Phasma

‹Phasma‹ (1580) is one of the earliest dramatizations of the Reformation. Frischlin looks at the fragmentation of the Reformation movement from the perspective of the growing confessionalization of the Lutheran church in the second half of the 16th century. It is the volatile polemic which makes ‹Phasma‹ Frischlin‹s most controversial and also most influential play. The plot traces the explosive reactions to Luther shown by Karlstadt, Münzer, Zwingli, the Anabaptists and Schwenckfeld. One of the play‹s attractions is the animated and historically perceptive depictions of the main figures of the Reformation. As in his other socially conscious dramas, Frischlin examines the crises of that time from the perspective of the common people here as well.