FATE TRAGEDY

also called fate drama German, Schicksalstragdie a type of play especially popular in early 19th-century Germany in which a malignant destiny drives the protagonist to commit a horrible crime, often unsuspectingly. Adolf Mullner's Der neunundzwanzigste Februar (1812; February 29) and Die Schuld (1813; The Debt) and Zacharias Werner's Der vierundzwanzigste Februar (1806; February 24) are among the best-known examples.