Old Heidelberg

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Alt-Heidelberg is a play by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster , which was performed for the first time on November 22, 1901 at the Berlin Theater . The title goes back to Joseph Victor von Scheffel's poem Alt-Heidelberg, du fein . Meyer-Förster dramatized his story Karl-Heinrich (1898).

action

I only loved you, Käthie, of all people only you. Student postcard with a quote from Old Heidelberg

Alt-Heidelberg is the story of the Heidelberg student life of Hereditary Prince Karl-Heinrich from the fictional duchy of Saxony-Karlsburg (derived from Saxony-Coburg ). Karl-Heinrich becomes a member of the fictional Corps Saxonia Heidelberg, immerses himself in the student liaison system and falls in love with the landlord's daughter Käthie (see also Filia hospitalis ). But after four months, the raison d'état calls him back home for a befitting marriage. He leaves Heidelberg and Käthie to succeed his uncle.

Karl Heinrich. We'll keep it, Käthie. I don't forget you and you don't forget me. We won't see each other again, but we won't forget each other. My longing for Heidelberg was the longing for you - and I found you again. (Kisses her for a long time.) Farewell, Käthie. (He goes.)
Käthie (stands with arms hanging limply, looks after him).
Karl Heinrich (turns again). I only loved you, Käthie, of all people only you. (Kisses her, leaves.)
Käthie (stands in silence, stares after him for a few seconds. Then she claps her hands over her face and sobs bitterly).

reception

Alt-Heidelberg was one of the most frequently performed German theater plays in the first half of the 20th century, even if Bertolt Brecht called it a "mess", Alfred Döblin an "organ organ " and Kurt Tucholsky an "old tearful scrap" .

The piece made the name Heidelberg famous worldwide and became compulsory reading for Japanese German students in Japan during the Meiji period .

Bertolt Brecht portrayed the episode between the young prince and his obsequious old servant as the epitome of outdated class boundaries , which the audience applauded for his lack of understanding even after the First World War . The awareness that such opposites had been overcome in the real world, however, fueled the audience success.

The spectacle was a model for the highly successful Broadway - operetta The Student Prince by Sigmund Romberg (1924), in which a chorus of students in Couleur (one of the few successful on Broadway Männerchöre) is happening with student songs with painted. The play was in the repertoire of the Heidelberg Castle Festival for thirty years and was performed there in English with American actors.

Film adaptations

Radio plays

Note: The radio plays (broadcasts), which were created between 1924 and 1927, all had to be broadcast live due to the lack of recording devices.

  • 1925: Old Heidelberg. Drama in 5 acts (2 live broadcasts) - Adaptation (word): Hans Bodenstedt; Director: Hermann Beyer (NORAG)
  • 1925: Old Heidelberg. Drama in 5 Acts (3 other live broadcasts) - Director: Fritz Ernst Bettauer (Silesian Radio Lesson)
    • Speaker: Friedrich Reinicke, Grete Sprengholz , Willy Koch, Fritz Ernst Bettauer, Max Schiebener, Gerhard Kunze and others
  • 1925: Old Heidelberg. Drama in 5 acts - Director: Not specified (ORAG)
    • Speaker: Not specified

See also

literature

  • Oliver Fink: Memories of happiness. How the memory of Alt-Heidelberg was invented, maintained and fought. Publishing house for regional culture, Ubstadt-Weiher 2002. ISBN 3-89735-209-5 .

Web links