Christoph Hein's Das Napoleon-Spiel and the Ludic Principle

Christoph Hein's Das Napoleon-Spiel is part of a long tradition of novels based on the notion of the acte gratuit, gratuitous murder. This essay proceeds from one of the most important exemplars of this tradition, André Gide's Les Caves du Vatican, to place Hein's book in this tradition and to compare it with others: Crime and Punishment, L'Etranger, Der Richter und sein Henker. The figure of the Spieler is examined against the background of Huizinga's definition of the ludic principle and Schiller's concept of play. Freud's discussion of the child at play and his/her apparent violations of the pleasure principle is applied to Wörle's readiness to act against what appears to be in his best interest and risk what means the most to him, his freedom. Finally, the essay examines the novel as an expression of a Nietzschean will to power.