André Müller Sr.

André Müller Sr. , actually Willi Fetz , (born March 8, 1925 in Cologne ) is a German poet, publicist, theater critic and theater practitioner and lecturer in dramaturgy.

Life

In his own words, the trained carpenter fell for the Bertolt Brecht theater in the mid-1950s . He emancipated himself from Brecht together with Peter Hacks , with whom he had a close friendship since the 1950s. André Müller senior worked for many years. as a dramaturgical advisor, so for Hansgünther Heyme during his time in Cologne and for Benno Besson . He was a theater critic and editor of several cultural magazines until he himself had publications with plays, stories, satires, novels, anecdotes and children's books. In 1957 he was involved in founding the Bertolt Brecht working group. From 1973 to 2006 André Müller taught at the Otto Falckenberg School , the specialist academy for performing arts in Munich . André Müller Sr. is married to the specialist journalist Anja Weintz . He lives in Cologne and Zülpich - Juntersdorf .

plant

André Müller Sr. was a controversial author in the West as in the East. His sometimes radical realism and his " classical ideal of art " provoked both in the GDR and in the former FRG . A constant theme in Müller's work is his preoccupation with the art of cooking. André Müller Sr. can be called the closest friend of the poet Peter Hacks. There was an uninterrupted exchange of letters and personal exchanges since the late 1950s. The mutual influence of Hacks and Müller can be demonstrated in many ways. Von Müller is known to have compiled a collection of Hacks anecdotes that only appeared in private print. The correspondence between Hacks and Müller from 1989/1990 appeared in 2001 under the title Nur that we are a little clearer in Berlin. In 2008 the Talks with Hacks (1963–2003) appeared in Berlin.

theatre

André Müller Sr. is considered a Shakespeare specialist. With an unacademic approach, he completely reinterprets Shakespeare plays from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Müller's method is to make understandable the social background hidden in the text in his opinion. In doing so, he exposes overlooked, undervalued, forgotten or buried layers of meaning, which leads to astonishing insights into the world of Shakespeare, his characters, but also into the artistic creative process. Müller emphasizes: "The processes shown and their meaning can only form the basis on which poetry must develop its peculiar beauty". His hermeneutical understanding of Shakespeare is author-centered and shaped by the influence of Marxist literary studies and by Brecht's Shakespeare reception.

Peter Hacks wrote: “The advantage of André Müller's method lies in its evidential value. He does not speak: so and so I interpret Hamlet , he speaks: this and that is in it. Diligence, the virtue of the fool, is an invaluable tool in this thinking man. It comes to light that Shakespeare had ideas himself and that the interpreter may not need them so much. ”In Shakespeare research, Müller's interpretations remain controversial because he does not take the original texts into account, but relies exclusively on German translations. The focus on political-sociological aspects in the dramas is perceived as problematic.

In 1973 André Müller senior made his debut. with the satire The Last Paradise in Göttingen. The piece was later filmed by the Bavarian Radio. A new version by Daphnis and Chloe based on Clairville / Cordier and Jacques Offenbach was premiered at the Dresden Music Festival in 1985.

Epic

The novel Am Rubikon. The horrific events in Commune V tells the psychological genesis of the RAF : A politically-giving community of convenience of left-wing, but largely self-referential students is increasingly radicalized and manipulated by a pretender and by a police spy living in their midst. The students are helpless in the face of the demands of reality and fall for every further move by the two opponents, until the founding of the RAF is inevitable out of the increasingly dense mixture of anti-communist and left-wing radicalism, and the Rubicon is exceeded. The novel was initially supposed to appear in the GDR, where it was not allowed to appear because it was not in "solidarity" with the New Left. West German publishers rejected the book because the author assumed that the authorities had an interest of their own in strengthening terrorism. The book was only available in 1987 from Pahl-Rugenstein in Cologne for a short time in a small edition and was reprinted in 2008. 1985 The Party of Garlic Friends appeared , a satire on the proceedings in Marxist parties. In 2007 the book Anne Willing, or: Die Wende before the Wende , came out, a key novel that deals with developments in the GDR in the late sixties and early seventies. André Müller Sr. has also published two collections of anecdotes by Brecht and Karl Marx.

Publications

Dramas

Mostly as stage manuscripts (BM) at Drei Masken Verlag, Munich.

• The last paradise . Comedy in eight pictures. (BM 1970; separate print Berlin 1973);
• Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. A festival . Satirical Comedy (BM 1973);
• 1945 . A sequence of scenes (BM 1984);
• Daphnis and Chloe . Operetta for actors, based on the libretto by Clairville and Cordier and the music by Jacques Offenbach (BM 1985, WP 1985);
• Mobuto . Comedy in three acts (BM 1991);
• Felix the penguin . A fairy tale for children (BM 1992, separate print 1979);
• The Epicureans of Cologne . Comedy (1994).

Books

• Crusade against Brecht. The campaign in the Federal Republic of 1961/62 , Berlin: Aufbau 1962, 128 p .;
• The director Benno Besson. Conversations, notes, performance photos , Berlin: Henschel 1967, 116 p .;
• Stories from Mr B., 99 Brecht anecdotes , Frankfurt am Main: Insel-Verlag 1967, together with Gerd Semmer ;
• Stories from Mr B., 100 new Brecht anecdotes , Munich: Kindler 1968, together with Gerd Semmer;
• Readings on Shakespeare , Berlin: Aufbau 1969;
• Anecdotal Spectaculum , Munich: Kindler 1970;
• The actor Fred Düren , Berlin: Henschel 1972;
• The last paradise. Comedy , Berlin: Eulenspiegel 1973, 85 pages, with illustrations by Hans Ticha;
• Hold your head !. Marx anecdotes , Berlin: Eulenspiegel 1977, 99 p .;
• About the misfortune of being witty, or 450 anecdotes about witty philosophers, artists, kings, popes and politicians , Berlin: Eulenspiegel 1978, 232 p., With illustrations by Peter Laube ;
• Dalli, der Haifisch , Berlin: Children's book publisher 1978, with illustrations by Klaus Ensikat;
• Felix, der Pinguin , Berlin: Kinderbuchverlag 1979, with illustrations by Erika Klein;
• Shakespeare without a secret , Leipzig: Philipp Reclam jun. 1980, with a foreword by Peter Hacks. New edition Berlin: Eulenspiegel Verlag 2006
• Stories from Mr. B .. Collected Brecht anecdotes , Leipzig: Philipp Reclam jun. 1977, 82 p., Together with Gerd Semmer. New edition Berlin: Eulenspiegel Verlag 2006
• The Party of Knoblauchfreunde , Stuttgart: Loipfing-Press 1985, 120 pages, with illustrations by Eckard Alker;
• Die Rosenschule , Berlin: Children's book publisher 1987, with illustrations by Andreas J. Mueller;
• At the Rubicon. The terrible incidents in Commune V , Cologne: Pahl-Rugenstein 1987, 412 p., With an essay by Armin Stolper and a letter of dispute from Peter Hacks. Verb. New edition Mainz: Verlag Andre Thiele 2008, ISBN 978-3-940884-03-9
• Just that we're a little clearer. The correspondence with Peter Hacks 1989/90 , Berlin: Eulenspiegel 2001;
• Understand Shakespeare. The secret of his late tragedies , Berlin: Eulenspiegel Verlag 2004
• Anne Willing. The turning point before the turning point , Berlin: Das Neue Berlin 2007, 464 pages, ISBN 978-3-360-01296-8
• Conversations with Hacks 1963-2003 , Berlin: Eulenspiegel Verlag 2008, 465 pages, ISBN 978-3-359-01687-8 .
• Stories from Mr B. , new edition, Berlin: Eulenspiegel Verlag 2016, 128 pages, ISBN 978-3-359-01714-1

Web links

• Literature by and about André Müller sen. in the catalog of the German National Library
• Encounter: It doesn't work without irony , portrait by Matthias Dell on Friday , March 10, 2010
• Article by André Müller sen. about Benno Besson .
• in the FAZ of April 24, 2007 review of the novel "Anne Willing" by Dietmar Dath .
• Two reviews of the novel "Am Rubikon": Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz DPA / Berliner Literaturkritik

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.eulenspiegel-verlag.de/programm-1/titel/369-Shakespeare_ohne_Geheimnis.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ http://www.linksnet.de/de/artikel/21153