Bertolt Brecht’s play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, Mother Courage and Her Children, had its first performance in Zurich on 19 April 1941. It is often read in German schools. It is set in the Thirty Years’ War. Anna Fierling, called Mother Courage, follows the armies with her wagon and sells goods to the soldiers. Her son Schweizerkas is arrested. She could buy him free. German Wikipedia sums up what happens next: Doch sie verhandelt zu lange um die Auslösesumme für ihren Sohn … But she negotiates too long over the ransom for her son. He is shot.