With intellectual audacity and penetrating insight, The Great Tragedy reveals the dark side of World War I, when the German Kaiser Wilhelm II led his people behind illusions of racial superiority and the myth of military supremacy. The author confronts the reader with a tragic scene where the ruling elites fueled the fires of war, while young people were thrown into the battlefields as senseless sacrifices. Written before the war ended, Schimmel predicted the defeat of Germany and the surrender of its Kaiser after his folly claimed millions of lives. It is not merely a political play; it is an intellectual document and a stark diagnosis of human madness when one leaves the reins of one's destiny in the hands of tyrants. This work opens the door for the reader to contemplate the meaning of patriotism, the absurdity of violence, and the dark fate of peoples when they are deceived by false slogans.

شبلي شميل (1850–1917م) طبيب ومفكر لبناني. أدخل نظرية داروين إلى الفكر العربي. كتب مقالات عن العلم والمجتمع. ويُعد من أوائل دعاة الفكر العلمي الحديث في المشرق العربي.