Arthur Aronymus and his fathers

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Arthur Aronymus und seine Fathers is a play in fifteen pictures by Else Lasker-Schüler , which the author wrote in 1932 after the prose presentation published in October of the same year by Rowohlt in Berlin (see below under text editions) and which Leopold Lindtberg wrote on December 19, 1936 in Schauspielhaus Zürich with Grete Heger in the title role. Jane Curtis translated the play into English in 2005 under the title Arthur Aronymus and his ancestors .

Sigrid Bauschinger aptly calls eight-year-old Arthur Aronymus “one of the most beautiful children's characters in German literature”. In the Westphalian town of Geseke - not too far from Paderborn - some Jews and Catholics practice tolerance in "Lasker's pupil Nathan " .

background

The author added two things. First, something from her family history: Her father, Aaron Schüler (1825–1890), a Jewish private banker, came from Geseke. In the play she names her great-grandfather, the father of Henriette Schüler (mother of 23 children), Uriel, regional rabbi of Rhineland and Westphalia. Your paternal grandfather is Moritz's student. Second, an incident from Geseke: in 1844 a Jewish boy had changed his denomination; had become a Catholic and triggered anti-Semitic reactions.

Else Lasker-Schüler wrote the piece in a month and a half. The Theater am Schiffbauerdamm accepted it in mid-March 1931 , but Kurt Zierold in the Ministry of Education did not receive the completion report until the end of the year. On November 30, 1932, the author read from the play in the Schubert Hall on Nollendorfplatz . The listening journalist from Berliner Tageblatt responded positively with the final curious question: “Who will play it?” Nothing came of the Berlin premiere. A letter sent by Else Lasker-Schülers to Hitler's Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen from the beginning of March 1933 can be seen as the last attempt at reconciliation . On March 20, the sender received a polite reply from the office manager of the Vice Chancellor, Dr., to the letter accompanying the copy of the prose volume "Arthur Aronymus". Gritzbach . In April 1933 Else Lasker-Schüler had to leave the city. Before that, she had had several physical arguments on the street - probably with SA men. The premiere planned for February 1, 1933 in the Hessisches Landestheater Darmstadt never happened.

content

In their belief in witches, Westphalian Catholics want to send Jewish girls to the stake. Help is needed. Old Uriel is said to intercede with the bishop for the persecuted Jews. The situation seems serious. Arthur Aronymus and his six-year-old sister Lenchen from Geseke visit grandfather Uriel in Paderborn and ask whether their 15-year-old sister Dora, who does St. Vitus's dance , is a witch. The potential helper Uriel dies. Arthur Aronymus is popular in Geseke and is even allowed to take part in giving presents on Christmas Eve in the apartment of the young chaplain Michalski. A stone's throw against the window, combined with spiteful singing, disturbs the Christmas peace. In addition, Arthur is snubbed by the chaplain with the remark: "... you don't want to be a brazen Jewish boy, do you?" Arthur returns home confused. The little boy is by no means a pure innocent angel. He has a dream on Christmas Eve . The Jewish peddler Lämmle Zilinsky, whom he insulted, parades along the dream horizon. Arthur no longer wants to ridicule the peddler. Arthur's eldest sister Fanny - the fourth of the 23 children who secretly loves the chaplain - has finally a reason to visit the adored young clergyman on Christmas morning . Fanny invents an order from the mother who inquires about the behavior of the slightly disturbed Arthur in the chaplain’s Christmas room. At home, Fanny confesses to her mother the circumstances of her daring venture. Fanny wants to become a nun. The maid ca n't get the chaplain because of his celibacy .

Arthur's father, the landowner Moritz Schüler, has received an “anonymous letter” from the Gesek anti-Jews and asks his three eldest sons Heinrich Menachem, Simeon and Julius, the Paderstein friends and the chaplain to come to the house for advice. The reaction of the chaplain after reading the threatening letter does not meet with the approval of the landlord. The chaplain wants to raise Arthur Aronymus as a Christian. The father refuses to convert. The chaplain withdraws and writes a letter to his bishop in Paderborn at home. The bishop answers with a bull against the Gesek anti-Jews.

Later, the chaplain has meanwhile been called to Paderborn and accompanies his bishop to Geseke. There the two clergy witnesses child's play. The girls and boys play “Student Dora” on the “pyre!”

The piece ends with a conciliatory gesture. The bishop takes during the Passover -Festes at the table of the landowner Moritz students the Seder a mahl. The pronouncements of the bishop at the banquet table culminate in the saying: "I bless the ancient people of Israel !"

Quotes

  • The chaplain: "... blessed are those who hang their lives on childlike joys".
  • Fanny wants to convert out of love for the chaplain. Then the mother in private: "... you don't change your faith like one robe with another ..."
  • Landowner Moritz Schüler reads notes from his youth to his 23 children: “Paderborn. Thursday, September 25th, 1810. I, Moritz Schüler, the firstborn of my parents, and my younger brother Berthold Schüler ... "

Performances

premiere

The 20-year-old Grete Heger played the role of little Arthur Aronymus. Leonhard Steckel played Arthur's father Moritz's pupil, Erwin Kalser played his maternal grandfather (state rabbi Uriel), Susi Kertes played Arthur's sister Fanny and Bimba Hesse played his sister Lenchen. Wolfgang Langhoff played the young chaplain Bernhard Michalski, Kurt Horwitz played the bishop Mathias von Paderborn and Ernst Ginsberg played the night watchman Altmann. After the second performance on December 23, 1936, the piece was canceled because the people of Zurich were hardly interested in the problems of the emigrants.

Other performances

reception

  • Deutsches Theater Berlin : Max Reinhardt from Rome in 1932 to the author: “I will stand up for your beautiful work with the new management.” And Heinz Martin raves about a “heavenly piece of poetry”.
  • December 19, 1936: Thomas Mann had attended the world premiere and wrote: "... a long, disorganized, but amiable Rhenish Jewish play by the Lasker students, which was a great success."
  • December 21, 1936: Jakob Rudolf Welti in the NZZ : Protestants in the Zwingli city ​​of Zurich did not want any questions of denomination to be dealt with on stage.
  • Bänsch admires the apparently hopeless endeavor of the author: With poetic power - speaking only of love - she runs against "hatred and persecution". The play has nothing to do with prophecy, but rather articulates an “old Jewish experience”. On the other hand, the jasmine arbor, postilion and night watchman are only elements of Biedermeier kitsch. Bänsch goes into the somewhat uncertain validity of the play's relation to the real town of Geseke and the real family of Schüler.
Recent comments
  • Feßmann observes as one of the writing motifs in the author from 1928 after the death of her son Paul, an increasing awareness of the large family that no longer existed.
  • According to Bischoff, the prose version and the play gave the impression that "it seems possible to avert excessive outbreaks of violence."
  • Bauschinger classified the piece in the Littérature engagée . According to Karl Kerényi's categorization, Arthur Aronymus is a divine child. On the one hand, the prose template contains passages that are “softened” compared to the piece. On the other hand, a pogrom against Jews is mentioned in the prose version . Gottfried Benn wrote to the author in 1932 about the riots against Jews: "... it will definitely not be as bad as some think ..."
  • The author takes up the story of the great-grandfather with the 23 sons of the Prince of Thebes again in the figurative sense and this time stays in the West German homeland.

literature

Text output

Used edition
  • Arthur Aronymus and his fathers. From my beloved father's childhood years . P. 89–226 in: Else Lasker-Schüler: Die Wupper and other dramas . dtv 10647, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-423-10647-6
Prose for the drama
  • Arthur Aronymus. My father's story 72 pages, with cover illustration by Else Lasker-Schüler. , Rowohlt Verlag, Berlin 1932 (first edition)
  • Arthur Aronymus. My father's story 60 pages. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1989 (1st edition), ISBN 3-518-22002-0

Secondary literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Arthur is the 17th and Lenchen the 19th of the 23 pupil children.
  2. ↑ Else Lasker-Schüler writes in the accompanying stage instruction: “Deeply shocked by the remark he got from him [the chaplain]”. (edition used, p. 142, 19. Zvo)
  3. ↑ Sometimes it seems as if Else Lasker-Schüler allowed herself a joke or just worked superficially. Here are two examples. Mr. Schüler introduces Katharina as his eldest daughter to the chaplain (edition used, p. 178, 19. Zvo). According to the list of persons (edition used, p. 91), however, Fanny should be the oldest. Or with Schülers there is a book - " Goethe's correspondence with Lessing " - on the chair. For example, Biedermann writes in his essay Goethe and Lessing in the Goethe Yearbook 1880 on p. 42, 9. Zvu (digitized version see under web links): “It is strange that Goethe and Lessing never met each other personally, not even communicated with each other by letter to have."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 342, 1. Zvo
  2. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 390, 5. Zvo, p. 478, entry from 1936 and ill. On p. 393
  3. ↑ Entry on WorldCat
  4. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 335, 12. Zvu
  5. ^ Distance from Paderborn Geseke
  6. ↑ Erika Klüsener, quoted in Bischoff, p. 442, footnote 175
  7. ↑ Decker, p. 368, 4th Zvu
  8. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 334, 16. Zvu
  9. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 334 above
  10. ^ Review of a poetry reading in the Berliner Tageblatt, quoted in Bauschinger, p. 3488. Zvo
  11. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 350 below
  12. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 352 above
  13. ↑ Decker, p. 384 and Bauschinger, p. 351
  14. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 343, 5th Zvu and p. 348, 10th Zvo
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 142, 17. Zvo
  16. ↑ Edition used, p. 164, 9. Zvo and p. 181, 7. Zvu
  17. ↑ Edition used, p. 204, 3. Zvo
  18. ↑ Edition used, p. 218, 10th Zvu
  19. ↑ Edition used, p. 155, 16. Zvo
  20. ↑ Edition used, p. 160, 2nd Zvu
  21. ↑ The weekday calculation results in a Tuesday
  22. ↑ Edition used, p. 165, 9. Zvu
  23. ↑ Bimba Hesse in the IMDb
  24. ↑ Bauschinger, pp. 390-397
  25. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 391, 1st Zvu
  26. ↑ Hans Bauers ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. performance @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rosel-zech.de
  27. ↑ Max Reinhardt, quoted in Bauschinger, p. 342, 11. Zvu
  28. ↑ Heinz Martin, quoted in Bauschinger, p. 344, 2. Zvo
  29. ↑ Thomas Mann, quoted in Bauschinger, p. 391, 4th Zvu
  30. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 394
  31. ↑ Bänsch, p. 103, 5th Zvu
  32. ↑ Bänsch, p. 142, 9. Zvo
  33. ↑ Bänsch, p. 177 above
  34. ↑ Bänsch, p. 186
  35. ↑ Feßmann, p. 260
  36. ↑ Bischoff, pp. 442-466
  37. ↑ Bischoff, p. 442, 9. Zvu
  38. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 334 middle
  39. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 335 below
  40. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 342 above
  41. ↑ Gottfried Benn, quoted in Bauschinger, p. 343, 16. Zvo
  42. ↑ Sprengel, p. 406 below
  43. ↑ engl. HathiTrust