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Die PhysikerFriedrich DürrenmattThe Physicists (1962).Comedy set in an asylum run by Fräulein von Zahnd where three voluntary patients, Möbius ("King Solomon"), Beutler ("Newton"), and Ernesti ("Einstein"), each of them a physicist, are feigning insanity. Möbius has entered the asylum so that his formula unifying all scientific knowledge may be kept from a world that is morally unprepared for it. Beutler and Ernesti, actually agents of rival powers, have trailed Möbius there, each hoping to persuade him to join his side. Believing their positions in the asylum to be threatened, all three physicists murder their nurses, whereupon the remaining attendants are replaced by bodyguards. Now the three inmates reveal their real motives to one another. Möbius convinces his two pursuers that to protect mankind they must all remain secluded forever. This altruistic agreement produces a common sense of exhaltation among them. Their serenity is destroyed, however, when Fräulein von Zahnd discloses that she, under the influence of the historical King Solomon, has copied Möbius's documents and placed them at the disposal of a power seeking world domination. Realising that they are held captive by someone madder than they themselves pretend to be, the physicists resign themselves to playing out their assumed roles of Solomon, Newton, and Einstein.
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