Who wrote the 1894 German play Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora)?

Frank Wedekind wrote the 1894 German play Pandora’s Box, titled Die Büchse der Pandora. It forms the second part of his dramatic treatment of Lulu, following Earth Spirit (Erdgeist), first performed in the 1890s.

Wedekind’s Lulu dramas challenge conventional morality and bourgeois social expectations. Lulu’s sexuality, ambition, and relationships expose the hypocrisy of the men around her, while the plot moves toward violence and destruction. The work’s title borrows the Pandora image to suggest that suppressed desires and social scandals, once released, cannot easily be contained.

The play is often encountered through its connection to Pabst’s 1929 film, which combines material from both Lulu dramas. That cinematic adaptation made the title internationally famous, but Wedekind—not the film director—created the original dramatic characters and structure. His writing later influenced opera, theater, and film adaptations, including Alban Berg’s unfinished opera Lulu.