This paper presents a critical examination of Felix Mitterer’s conception of the Volksstück genre. Mitterer’s relation to the Volksstück—sitting between tradition and innovation—must be considered in the more general context of the continuation and renewal of this genre in the German-speaking countries after the Second World War. The first part of this contribution examines Mitterer’s vision of the Volksstück; the second analyses the way in which the Tyrolean playwright appropriates this genre by strengthening social criticism. Mitterer’s social plays fall within a rich Austrian tradition on the one hand and show, on the other, how original Mitterer’s Volkstheater is, given its socially critical stance and its aims of both improving education and unmasking social injustice or brutal human behavior.