By the end of the 1960s Martin Walser was one of Germany's most popular playwrights, but his plays also enjoyed widespread acclaim abroad. However, West German critical opinion was divided. Criticism was frequently directed towards the plays' emphasis on entertaining audiences as well as towards their allegedly superficial subject matter. This essay shows how the author set out to dismantle Germany's tradition of theatre belonging to the realm of high culture and intellectual education. To this end, the essay refers to biographical sources as well as analysing the dramas themselves and essays written by Martin Walser on his vision of contemporary theatre. The criticisms levelled at the author do in fact underline how deeply rooted elitist ideas about the theatre still were in Germany and how rigidly the boundary between so-called serious culture and so-called 'light' culture was drawn.