A further link to the Everyman theme is provided thistime by a Swiss writer, Max Frisch (1911–91), in avery well-known and much-performed work, Biedermann und dieBrandstifter (TheFire Raisers, The Fire Bugs, TheArsonists), which was written andreworked as a play throughout the 1950s andthereafter in a variety of different versions. Thehistory of the work is somewhat involved. It began,indeed, even earlier, with a prose short story,recorded in Frisch's diary in 1946–49, referred toas a burlesque (Burleske), “Die Geschichte von GottliebBiedermann” (the story of Gottlieb Biedermann), andit was linked by Frisch, as will be seen, with aspecific historical-political event during the ColdWar. Then, in the early 1950s, Frisch produced ashort radio play called first just Die Brandstifter, thenHerr Biedermann und dieBrandstifter, published in 1955. Theradio play is set in Seldwyla, a reference to thenineteenth-century Swiss writer Gottfried Keller'sliterary village in Die Leutevon Seldwyla. Next, in 1958 the play withthe nowfamiliar title was produced on stage inZurich and later in Frankfurt with a quasi-classicalGreek chorus commenting on the action. Since it wasstill rather short, Frisch first wrote a differentbrief play to be performed after it, but laterreplaced this with a Nachspiel, a postlude set in Hell,perhaps intended as a parody of the Vorspiel im Himmel ofGoethe's Faust. Thisidea of a discussion between God and the Devil isdistorted further in Frisch's Nachspiel itself, where the Devil is notsure that he has even met God. We may also recallthe prologue of Everyman and indeed Borchert's Vorspiel beside the Elbe,both involving God and Death. Originally publishedwith the play, the Nachspiel was removed from subsequenteditions but has now been restored, as it was aftera while for some performances. If there are indeedweaknesses in it, it is nevertheless of considerableinterest, especially in the context of human guilt.A television version made other changes in dramaticpresentation, notably to the chorus, and there hasalso been a version in Swiss-German. For the mostpart, concentration here will be upon the stageversion, taking account, too, of the Nachspiel.