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3.96 of 5 stars
MOBIUS: Ich bin Salomo. Ich bin der arme Konig Salomo. Einst war ich unermeBlich reich, weise und gottesfurchtig. Ob meiner Macht erzitterten die G... read full description

reviews

Apr 29, 2007
علی rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Who is ill? The lunatic inhabitants or the head of hospital?
شاهکار دیگری از دورنمات. اینجا تیمارستانی ست که دیوانگانش همه دانشمند و فیزیکدان و ... هستند و خود را به دیوانگی زده اند تا از شر کشفیات و اختراعات خود و خطر آن برای بشریت در امان بمانند. رییس این تیمارستان خانم دکتری معیوب است که اتفاقن تنها بیمار روانی این تیمارستان است. این اوست که شادمانه نیتجه ی کشفیات این دانشمندان را می دزدد و به نام خود در جهان می پراکند و افتخاراتی را که فیزیکدان ها از ان در هراس اند، با کمال میل برای خود More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 17, 2009
Brian rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Three physicists are locked away in a sanatarium run by the the world-renowned psychiatrist Mathilde van Zahndt, and the body count is rising. Inmates believing themselves to be Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton have each already killed a nurse, and as the first scene closes Johann Wilhelm Mobius kills a nurse (on the orders of King Solomon)who professes her love to him and wants to establish a new life away from the sanatarium. But in the second scene, it is revealed that all is not as it se More...
Jan 09, 2009
Rochelle added it
The Physicists by Friedrich Durrenmatt Reading Notes 1/09

Setting: The drama is set in a decaying villa that is part of a modern sanitarium in a small town in Germany. The author spends many words with exacting details of his setting including the color—white –of the furniture, the washable, glossy walls, and the fact that there is a prison nearby. He is attempting to adhere to the Aristotelian unities of time place and action.
If I were to produce this play, I would have More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 30, 2011
Nana rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I've read this book in school, not expecting much of it - but i was totally surprised.

The story of "die Physiker" deals with three physicists, who live in a sanatorium for the mentally ill. One of them did a groundbreaking discovery, who could influence the whole world... "Die Physiker" is a play, which teaches us a lesson about the responsibility of science.

One negative point I just have to mention, is that i am really not a fan of reading(!) plays. Y More...
May 29, 2011
Vasha7 rated it: 2 of 5 stars
This 1962 play is part of the wave of pessimism that followed the invention of the atomic bomb, one of the rare occasions in history that the total extinction of humanity has seemed like a real possibility. On the one hand, some thinkers stressed the essential warlike nature of humanity, as in Robert Ardrey's popular books about human origins as the metaphorical "children of Cain" or the famous opening sequence of 2001. On the other hand, writers like Dürrenmatt put the blame on scient More...
Feb 28, 2010
Brendan added it
The Physicists is a two act play about three madmen in an upscale madhouse, two of whom have murdered their attending nurses recently. Over the course of the play, we learn plenty about the three men who believe themselves to be Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Mobius. It's a strange little play with good humor and a nice ending, but I can't write much more about it without giving the story away, so below there will be plenty of spoilers.

Over the course of the play we come to lear More...
Apr 20, 2010
Maik rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Three physicists have been confined to a very expensive posh mental institution, Les Cerisiers. Herbert George Beutler says he is Isaac Newton, but he knows that he is really Einstein. He adopted the guise of Newton to avoid upsetting another patient, Ernst Heinrich Ernesti, who claims he is Einstein. The third, Johann Wilhelm Mobius is himself. As a long term patient, he enjoys frequent visions of King Solomon.
I had the great fortune of knowing little about the plot. I was continuously en More...
Dec 03, 2007
André rated it: 5 of 5 stars
We had to read this book in school, and it's actually one of the few books that I really, really, really liked. I read it in a single day, because it was so thrilling and totally not like the usual books one has to read for school. And I don't think it's just because it's about Physicists. ;)
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 06, 2011
Aathavan rated it: 2 of 5 stars
A madhouse with three physicists claiming to be Einstein, Newton and Mobius! This wonderful premise for the play is squandared and it does not exploit the richness that these characters could provide and instead wastes it on banalities.
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 29, 2012
David rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Another nice play from Durrenmatt. Quick, funny, with some tasty twists along the way. A pleasing kick of weight in the last quarter too.
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Apr 25, 2008
Ross rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Absolutely brilliant! I'm going to read it again tonight. "And to think for this I had to strangle a nurse and learn German!"
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jun 22, 2007
Wilson rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Great stuff. If you've got a beach weekend of physics and nurse-strangling planned, put this book in your tote!
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Sep 19, 2007
Heather rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This is a good, solid comedic mystery about crazy people. And you thought Germans had no sense of humor!
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Apr 19, 2010
Sara rated it: 4 of 5 stars
When I started this book, I espected a book about phisicists. Soon I understood that this book is about much more than just that. This book is really philpsophically written and switches from insanity to intelligence and logic. It combine a crime and science and has a surprising ending. I liked Duerrenmatt`s writig style alot and I had the opportunity to read it in german which I found really good because I like especially its wordchoise.
All in all this book showed me different perspective More...
Apr 18, 2010
Jakob rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The Physicists by Friedrich Dürematt is very good story of the life of crazy people in a psychiatry. This sound very boring but it is a very neat story, very abstract and often not with an obvious point. The characters are all very present to the reader and reading the book you almost can see them jumping on a stage. The writing is very classic abstract, complicated but easy to read. The book is often hilarious and makes the reader smile because the characters act intelligent and stupid at the s More...
Mar 18, 2010
Ashley rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I initially read this in German many years ago, and fell in love with it then. I've always wanted to own the English version so that I could share it with others, and figured I would read it first.

The tale mirrors Oppenheimer a bit, or any of the other inventors of the terrible weapons that have come to pass and said to themselves 'I've created something so horrific, no one would ever use it.'

The Physicist creates a weapon, and just as he starts to wind down his research, More...
Jun 04, 2011
Janosch rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Typische Schullektüre welche schon ein bisschen gealtert ist. Die Moralfrage und die Thematik ist schon so oft diskutiert worden, dass es kaum noch Wirkung hat. Es ist nich schlecht, aber auch nicht gut. Es ist zum Einstieg für das Lernen geeignet, wenn man noch zur Schule geht. Zur Unterhaltung oder um den Leser zu fesseln leider nicht. Es ist so kurz, dass es nicht schadet es gelesen zu haben, aber es schadet auch nicht stattdessen eine Summary auf wiki darüber zu lesen.
Mar 30, 2010
Lindsay rated it: 3 of 5 stars
The Physicist was a humorous, although confusing play. There was Einstein, who wasn’t really Einstein. And there is Newton, who admits he is not Newton because he is actually Einstein. And then Mobius, a tormented soul who must walk the fine line between morality and science. This play deals mostly with the question: is it the mad who are truly sane? As a personal opinion, those who are sane think that they are crazy, and often have thoughts that would land them in a psychiatric ward should More...
Jan 06, 2011
Abrakadabra rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I usually give two stars to books with nothing than banalities. Die Physiker is based on quite old tunes (the difficulcies of knowledge) and the literary tricks (jokes, comparisons) weren't original. So why three stars? I just thought that the symbols were quite enjoyable. The athmposphere was well built, nervous and a little absurd. As a play, die Physiker has a potential to inspire a director to something bigger than what is between the covers.
Aug 09, 2011
Anna rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I find it a little stupid to read in German but comment in English, however my German skills are not developed to an extend of writing a good review and not spending an hour on it))
Basically there's not that much I'd like to say.
This surrealistically weird play sure has a good main idea - be very careful, because something that is already thought, said and done can not be "unthought", "unsaid" and "undone". Everybody should just keep it in mind....even t
Aug 15, 2010
Daniel rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Dramatisiertes Umwälzen der moralischen Verantwortung der Wissenschaftler und der potenziell katastrofalen Wirkungen einer Weltformel. Wieder. Das Buch hat anscheinend zu lange auf dem Regal warten müssen. Da hat sich bei mir in dieser Zeit schon ein anderes Erwartungsgut herausgebildet. Man darf aber dem Buch als Leser ja nichts vorschreiben lassen.
Jul 19, 2010
Daniel rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Deliberately minimalist is this play that exposes the circular utilitarianism of scientific endeavour in a world whose responsibility is in mismatch to its technological omnipotence. A nice contribution to the Cold War commentary, albeit not quite as caustic as one would expect from Dürrenmatt.
Apr 11, 2011
Natalie rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Zwei Irre, die Keine sind. Eine Anstalt die auch nicht wirklich eine ist. Ein Mord.

Geheimnisse um Geheimdienste und ein überforderter Polizist.

Und die Frage wer, oder was ist denn nun Irr und wer oder was normal?

Dürrenmatt at his best! Um es mal auf Neudeutsch auszudrücken...

Sehr empfehlenswert.
Nov 28, 2010
Nina rated it: 4 of 5 stars
About the responsibility that comes with great power. But not strength is meant here, but power of the mind, able to invent something that could destroy everything. Meanwhile absurdly hilarious. Great play.
Oct 14, 2010
Hbic rated it: 3 of 5 stars
a good book to think about and to illuminate our society...
figuratively its about the real self of the people and that nobody is that much different from the others.
May 14, 2009
Anica rated it: 1 of 5 stars
I hate it!

And yes, I am probably too stupid to get the bigger deal behind it. But for me, it was just one of those books that I despise. Like really!

Ugh!
Feb 03, 2009
Jerome rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I read this, Die Physiker, in the original German along with Der Ricther Und Sein Henker and some of his short stories. I like his style.
Jan 14, 2009
Natasha added it
It's more of a question to be answered or thought about... when does knowledge become dangerous?
Nov 07, 2010
Hikari rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Dürrenmatts Komödie spielt in einem Irrenhaus und dreht sich um die drei Physiker und "Irren" Herbert Georg Beutler, genannt Newton; Ernst Heinrich Ernesti, genannt Einstein; und Johann Wilhelm Möbius.
Aufgrund eines Mordes in diesem Irrenhauses kommt die Polizei hinzu, die anfgangs verzweifelt, sich aber schnell mit herrlichem Humor den Sitten anpasst und schlussendlich wird Licht in die Sache gebracht und die Geschichte endet mit...

Die Physiker von Dürrenmatt ist eine More...
Aug 11, 2011
Ratfrett rated it: 5 of 5 stars
lustiges buch
hat man schnell gelesen, aber nicht schnell wiedfer vergessen