DER PRÄSIDENT

Der Präsident: translation

(The President) by Georg Kaiser.

   Premiered 1928. A satirical treatment of one man's attempt to advance socially in Parisian society, Kaiser's central character is an ambitious lawyer who attempts to revive the now-defunct "International Action League against the White Slave Trade." His principal goal in the process is to meet influential members of French society and marry off his 18-year-old daughter to an aristocrat. The daughter sees through her father's machinations and realizes that she is herself on a highly sophisticated form of trading block in the white slave trade. She determines to take the fight against prostitution into her own hands and agrees to run off with a madam and a pimp, along with a suitcase full of her father's money. The two crooks plan to abandon the girl and take the money as soon as it is convenient. The lawyer discovers the plot, but too late; he loses both his daughter and his money.