The pieces and scenes by Heiner Müller printed in this volume were created between the late 1940s and the late 1960s. They demonstrate the persistent intensity with which Müller has engaged with the unique possibilities of scenic-dramatic writing from the very beginning. Almost a decade had to pass before Müller could publish a play for the first time in the GDR in 1957 with "Der Lohndrücker." Initial successes on stage, attention from critics, and the awarding of the Heinrich Mann Prize followed. However, conflicts, performance bans, and his exclusion from the GDR Writers' Association soon arose. For more than ten years, Heiner Müller's plays were not performed on any stage in the GDR. When he was banned east of the Elbe, interest in a poet whose recent texts opened up a poetic dimension awakened in the West.