What is the English title of Frank Wedekind’s 1904 play Die Büchse der Pandora?

The English title of Frank Wedekind’s 1904 play Die Büchse der Pandora is Pandora’s Box.

Die Büchse der Pandora is the second of Wedekind’s two Lulu plays, following Erdgeist. The title literally invokes the Pandora container from Greek mythology, but the drama is not a mythological retelling. It continues the story of Lulu, a controversial figure whose relationships and social position expose conflicts involving sexuality, power, morality, and respectability.

Wedekind’s Lulu material later became the basis for Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box, which starred Louise Brooks. The same literary source also influenced later operatic and theatrical adaptations, including Alban Berg’s opera Lulu.

Translations of German titles can vary in punctuation and capitalization, but “Pandora’s Box” is the established English title of Die Büchse der Pandora. The title should not be confused with the name of Wedekind’s first Lulu play, Erdgeist, commonly translated as Earth Spirit or Earth Spirit. That distinction identifies which work the question asks about.