Der tapfere Cassian is the only play from the Marionetten cycle that Schnitzler explicitly describes as a puppet play (Puppenspiel). However, it appears to have been originally created for actors that would behave like puppets. The play was performed for the first time by the stage director Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) on the stage of the Kleines Theater in Berlin, on November 22, 1904. Although the play initially met with little success, this did not prevent Paul Brann, famous puppeteer from Munich, from staging it twice, in 1908 and 1911, with puppets this time. Schnitzler turned the play into an operetta in 1909, together with composer Oscar Straus (1870-1954).

Martin is a man who wins every game he plays. This evening, he is preparing for his greatest gamble yet: abandoning his lover Sophie in order to go to Homburg and seduce the scandalous courtesan Eleonora Lambriani. However, his cousin, the blustering soldier Cassian, visits him; soon, the tide turns. Sophie falls in love with Cassian, Martin starts to lose at dice and is then mortally wounded by his cousin in the ensuing fight. Cassian abandons Sophie to meet with Eleonora Lambriani. Sophie jumps out of the window, but Cassian follows her and miraculously saves her; they set off for Homburg. Martin finally dies, having lost everything…