doctors

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Doctors is a drama by Rolf Hochhuth from 1979 . It deals with negligent practices in pharmaceutical research and questions the sense of responsibility of medical professionals working in the pharmaceutical industry . The premiere took place on November 9, 1980 in the Nationaltheater Mannheim , directed by Jürgen Bosse .

content

1st act

The elderly doctor Lydia Kowalenko works for a pharmaceutical company and researches the effects of new drugs. Her daughter Katia Michelsberg, a doctor in a hospital, rejects criticism of the methods used to develop new drugs or healing methods and justifies the negligent behavior of doctors with the benefits that these methods would bring. She is often criticized by her son Tom. When Lydia is commissioned by her superior Böblinger to deny her company's guilt for the death of three people, she promises herself and offers to resign. Her supervisor has long hoped for that, as he does not value her integrity and puts the company's profits above life.

2nd act

Lydia loses her job and voluntarily vacates her expensive apartment. On this occasion, Katia and her husband Werner, also a doctor, meet at Lydia's house, and in the dispute he accuses Katia of killing shock lung patients by forbidden tissue removal because she and her boss wanted to become famous through basic research. Katia admits that she punctured the lungs of her shock lung patients, but says that they would have died anyway and that this would have enabled them to gain new scientific knowledge before they died. When Tom arrives, it turns out that he stole a bottle of cognac in the supermarket. In addition, Doctor Riemenschild appears, Katia's superior and married lover, whom Katia hopes could find a new job for her mother. In fact, Riemenschild succeeds in doing this. He also informs Katia that he and she can expect a complaint due to the prohibited removal of shock lung tissue.

3rd act

The two pathology employees, Mr. Wild, an experienced employee, and Mr. Ratzinger, who worked there the first day, prepare the body of a young woman for the burial. Before that, however, they remove all of the innards, as these are needed to clarify the circumstances of death. Mr. Ratzinger is appalled by Wild’s practices. Katia, Riemenschild, the lawyer Bitterim, the appraiser Dr. Planner and Katias still-husband Werner, who first looked after the deceased after her accident, meet and record the last hours of the dead in the hospital in order to document the events in accordance with legal regulations. Riemenschild and Katia defend themselves against all allegations, and he confesses to her that no charges have been brought against him because of his party membership and that he cannot help her. As a result, Katia turns away from him. Your love affair comes to an abrupt end.

4th act

All of the important doctors meet at a congress in Sweden, including Lydia, Katia, Böblinger, Riemenschild and 17-year-old Tom. Böblinger, Lydia's ex-boss, is also present and informs her that he has bought Lydia's current employer and is now her boss again, which Lydia is not very enthusiastic about. Tom, who should have been flying, steals a motorcycle, drives it to Sweden and is reprimanded by his mother for it. In Sweden, Lydia meets Professor Johanson and bribes him to help her company with an important research matter. Meanwhile, Riemenschild succeeds in shifting the responsibility onto the clinic; this revives his love affair with Katia.

5th act

Tom and his class had a bus accident in Austria in which several people died. In the hospital, some receive real blood while another group of students receive an artificial blood preparation. The group with the synthetic blood, including Tom, fell into a coma. One by one dies. Lydia, Katia and Werner are in the hospital and accuse the doctor of abusing the boys for experimental purposes and of causing the death of Tom and his schoolmates to research the artificial blood. Lydia concludes that there is no point in giving Tom artificial respiration. He should rather die.

people

Katia Michelsberg is a hard-working, determined doctor and a very committed researcher. She follows all of Riemenschild's instructions without questioning them. When a patient dies because Katia punctures the only intact lung, she denies any responsibility for the death of the young woman. On the other hand, she also doesn't understand why the Austrian doctor risked Tom's life in order to gain new research results. Even when fate hits her so hard, she does not question her own actions.

Lydia Kowalenko is also an excellent doctor, but shows more moral integrity. When she realizes that her company is at fault for the death of three sick people because a vaccine was contaminated, she wants the company to at least pay the relatives compensation and take the vaccine back for further tests. This is rejected by her superior Böblinger, who above all has the company's success and prestige in mind.

Paul Riemenschild is head of the surgery department at the hospital where Katia works. He wants to become a professor and is ready to do everything possible to achieve this goal. He does not particularly care about the well-being of his patients, but is primarily interested in being able to generate and publish new research results.

Context and message

The play questions the willingness of individual researchers in the pharmaceutical industry to approve of the death of individual patients or even to bring about it immediately in order to gain new knowledge and develop new preparations. With regard to the motivation and critical awareness of individual actors, there are many shades and discrepancies: Katia criticizes the Austrian doctor for only sacrificing her son to obtain new research results, but does not take into account that she has previously treated several patients in a similar manner, without showing remorse or questioning it.

filming

The play was in 1983 under the direction Horst sailor in the DEFA filmed . Co-producers were the West Berlin Manfred Durniok Filmproduktion , Sveriges Television and Monopolfilm Zürich. The actors included Judy Winter , Inge Keller and Walter Reyer . The East German press ostentatiously praised the film and emphasized that the depicted grievances, the machinations of West German chemical companies, were not problems of their own. “Zeit” reported that “Doctors” should also be shown at the Berlinale : “'The film is definitely worth it, it's well made,' said a young East Berliner. 'I just don't understand why we have to show films that deal with the problems of West Germans. As if we didn't have any ourselves. '” The film adaptation was not particularly well received by the Berlinale audience .

expenditure

literature

  • Peter Iden : Medicine, not fate. World premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's "Doctors". In: Walter Hinck (Ed.): Rolf Hochhuth - Intervention in contemporary history. Essays on the work. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1981, ISBN 3-498-02856-1 , pp. 265-268.
  • Eva Kormann: The clumsy paw of a lonely primal creature. The new critical folk piece. Narr, Tübingen 1990, ISBN 3-87808-688-1 , pp. 184-188.
  • Sjaak Onderdelinden: The theatrical rage of Rolf Hochhuth: On the dramaturgy of lawyers and doctors. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Modern German Studies. (ABnG). Volume 16, 1983, pp. 255-289.
  • Rudolf Wolff (Ed.): Rolf Hochhuth. Work and effect . Herbert Grundmann, Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-416-01839-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marlies crowd : Fun in the Wild West . In: The time. No. 5, January 27, 1984.