Babel and Bible

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Babel and Bible. Arabian Fantasia in Two Acts is the only drama completedby Karl May that he wrote between 1904 and 1906. The two-act act has exactly 1000 verses per act . May's expectation of an enthusiastic reception of this drama by its readers has been disappointed.

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Abu Kital, a violent man, despotic ruled his tribe, the An'allah. His teachers are Babel, an ossified scientist, the Kadi and the Imam (law and [self-righteous] belief). Under the influence of these teachers, Abu Kital rejected his beloved wife Bent'ullah and his young son years ago and considers them (deceived by his teachers) to be dead. Under their influence, he considers himself to be the spirit of the Orient; therefore he challenged Marah Durimeh , the human soul, to a game of chess with living figures. He wants to take her, his archenemy, captive on this occasion and so win the An'allah world domination and suppress occidental-Christian influences. His allies are eight sheiks from neighboring tribes, as well as the imagination and the sheik of the death caravan. The latter two, however, are (disguised) Marah Durimeh and Ben Tesalah.

When Abu Kital learns through a shadow play performed by fantasy that his wife and son are alive and that he only believed in their death through the intrigues of the Kadi and the Imam, he is so shocked that he internally distances himself from these teachers . Then his warlike plans fail and he is defeated in a duel by the sheik of the death caravan. This breaks his arrogance. However, since his opponents want peace and not his downfall, he is only forced to admit his guilt. When his wife reappears in her old beauty and he learns that the sheik of the death caravan is his son, he is ready to give up his old attitude, to free the "spirit of the Bible" , to renounce the plans for world domination and instead to Märdistan , in to go to the ghost forge of Kulub, where he is to be formed into a noble man.

The kadi and the imam want to flee, but are captured and handed over to Bent'ullah. This forgives them. Babel, realizing that his understanding of spirit and soul was completely wrong, throws his writings into the fire. Marah Durimeh agrees to show him "the earth from on high" so that he can see the perspective from which science must be carried out.

Karl May's interpretation

On September 26, 1906, Karl May wrote to Princess Marie Therese of Bavaria :

“With the Arabic fantasy“ Babel and Bible ”that has just been published, I am starting a series of dramas which are intended to show the way in which art has to mediate between religion and science. In these dramas I want to bring the holy power of faith , the irresistibility of true trust in God , the demands of noble humanity and the possibility of a rational international peace to life. And with regard to the highest topicality of the present moment, the aim is to illustrate the way in which the peaceful reconciliation of the East and the West and thus the solution of this most burning question of our time can be made possible. [...]

We renounce every low matter and every low sound. Our striving is a purely human one . We feel ourselves to be lay people in a religious relationship and therefore take care not to intervene in church matters at all. But it is precisely this purely human point of view that enables us to be able to emphatically emphasize the necessity of true and intimate religiosity without falling into suspicion of obscure reasons. Because religiosity lies in the deepest, innermost being of man. Above all else, we are based on the incontrovertible truth that one must be a good person to be allowed to think one is a good Christian . By trying to ennoble the “purely human” in this way, we prepare the ways in which the Christian priest then has to take over the higher guidance . It is not up to us, but to him alone, to deal with the internal questions of the Church.

The art we strive for is therefore a decidedly Christian art which seeks to pursue its ends only through the path of law, justice and humanity. She is not so short-sighted as to only look at the cramped, domestic conditions. It also directs its attention to the international interests that dominate us, and above all it has to emphasize that the violent man should make himself noble and the unchristian race struggle should be led towards a more humane order. "

Contemporary history

Karl May wrote to the Bavarian princess about the historical circumstances of his dramatic work:

“The beginning of the twentieth century is characterized by a longing and urge for refinement and perfection, which goes through all countries, but is most clearly and intensely evident in our German people. If this striving is not led in the right path, it is very easy to go astray and lead astray. The science does not seek more to God, but from him. She carries away the holy faith with her by declaring herself called to be able to appoint or depose God as she pleases. And art , true art, is expected to serve mammonism, unbelief, lust for pleasure and immorality instead of fulfilling its glorious task of leading earthly knowledge to heavenly faith .

These sad phenomena now come to light so generally and so brutally that it is truly and truly the duty of every serious and loyal man to work in his circle and in his profession to make things different and therefore better. It is my fervent endeavor to participate in the solution of this problem, neither in relation to religion , for I am a layman, nor in relation to science itself, because I am not a specialist, but only in relation to art, especially the dramatic, to which I now have to turn. "

Others

Karl May initially placed so much hope in hardly any other work. This is indicated by a number of different versions of individual scenes as well as letters to Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld and Sascha Schneider . In addition, a travel story was announced in 1907 with Abu Kital, the Sheik of the An'allah , which seems to be related to the plot of Babel and the Bible .

Book editions

As part of the collected works of Karl May Verlag , the drama (edited) was published in volume 49 Lichte Höhen . Since 1998 this volume has again contained the unedited version of the drama.

Fragments and other versions of Babel and the Bible can be found in Volume 81 Abdahn Effendi .

All current editions can be found in the book database.

swell

  • Karl May: Sketch for Babel and Bible , 1906, in: Karl May: Lichte Höhen. Poetry and Drama (Ges. Werke, Volume 49), Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg / Radebeul 1998, pp. 455–484.
  • Friedrich Delitzsch : Babel and the Bible. A presentation. JC Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig. 16. Th. 1902. ( online version )
  • Entry on Babel and the Bible in the Karl May Wiki.

Performances

The drama was premiered in its entirety for the first time on June 21, 2005 in Hachenburg in the Westerwald as part of a school performance directed by Peter Wayand, after at most scenic (partial) readings had previously taken place.

Radio play version

On August 21, 2017 and September 21, 2017, PuzzleCat Entertainment released a two-part radio play version of the drama entitled Part 1: The Shadow Game and Part 2: The Chess Game , directed by Peter Wayand, for free on the Internet. This version is the unabridged original text with connecting narrative texts.

Assessments

Heinz Stolte wrote in his dissertation on the folk writer Karl May in 1936:

“According to all his talent, Karl May had to fail in the execution of this drama because he set his goals too high and was unable to find the lively fusion of ideas with the external fable, rather the everyday for the unusual, the external for the internal , the flat for the deep, but without on the other hand to find the strength to that Mephisto miracle in Auerbach's cellar , to that convincing deception, the equation of the low with the beautiful, sublime, the magical persuasion of the reader or viewer. "

The Osnabrück art educator Andreas Brenne judged this drama in 2018:

“In his drama May dealt with the function of art (as well as in his letters on art from 1906), which he understood as a link between religion and science, and thereby projected a substantial progress in civilization. Thematically, he further developed his leitmotif of the ennobling of humanity with the aim of 'eternal peace'. ... In contrast to his main symbolist work Ardistan und Dschinnistan - which at least continued the adventurous narratives symbolically - May concentrated on the power of speech in Babel and Bible (which he enriched with extensive stage directions and musical notations) and transcended his artistic ambitions into the present. Although his works have always consisted of extensive dialogues , these were so vividly interwoven with historical material that the readers forgot the fictionality of the spatial construction of the event. The drama read quietly cannot produce this effect; it needs the performative realization ... "

References and comments

  1. ^ To Princess Marie Therese of Bavaria, September 26, 1906 . In: Christoph F. Lorenz (ed.): Between heaven and hell. Karl May und die Religion , Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg / Radebeul, second, revised and expanded edition 2013, p. 502 f.
  2. ^ To Princess Marie Therese of Bavaria, September 26, 1906 . In: Christoph F. Lorenz (ed.): Between heaven and hell. Karl May und die Religion , Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg / Radebeul, second, revised and expanded edition 2013, p. 501 f.
  3. Book database
  4. May probably wrote this sketch for an editor of the Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten , who had requested documents about the play Babel und Bibel, which was published at the time . The manuscript is dated Monday, October 1, 1906, and is also noted: “Just written in a hurry. So it's just a concept. Couldn't read it through because your card has just arrived. So please forgive volatility. "( Lichte Höhen , p. 455, note 1)
  5. On this, however, cf. critical Karl May: To Paul Rentschka, Dresden, December 30, 1908 : “You […] are, as I have convinced myself, pure and flawless in your motifs. That is why I present 'Babel and the Bible' to you and ask you to take a look. The play will take place on the larger stages of Germany, Austria, and so on, and I don't want it to contain any offense against the Catholic Church, no matter how small. The judgment of a truth-loving opponent is higher to me than that of a swindling, lying clique who want to ruin me because of my sympathy for Catholicism. 'Babel and Bible' has nothing to do with Delitz's Babel-Bible dispute. My drama foretells the victory of Christianity over all the world. In order to be able to do this, I personify science, revelation, the spirit of the West and East, the human soul, etc., etc. For me, 'Babel' is erroneous science, distracted modernism, unfounded evolutionism. For me, however, the 'Bible' is eternal truth, the saving revelation, which triumphs over all, all others. I gave her the name Bent'ullah di 'God's Daughter'. You can see from this that Revelation and its true priests are above everything to me and that I am therefore not a supporter, but the strictest opponent of evolutionism and modernism. ”In: Christoph F. Lorenz (Ed.): Between Heaven and Hell. Karl May und die Religion , Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg / Radebeul, second, revised and expanded edition 2013, p. 510.
  6. http://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Peter_Wayand
  7. ^ Stolte: Der Volksschriftsteller ... , 1936. S. 154.
  8. Andreas Brenne: A contribution to pop culture ... , 2018, p. 62 ff.

literature

  • Abdahn Effendi . Appendix IV to Babel and the Bible: “Babel and Bible Controversy”.
  • Bernd Arlinghaus: A strange fantasy. Two critical questions to Karl May's Babel and Bible . In: Karl-May-Haus Information Number 21/2008, pp. 46–51.
  • Andreas Brenne: A contribution to pop culture? "Babel and Bible" in the radio play version by Peter Wayand , in: KMG Communications No. 197 / September 2018, pp. 62–64.
  • Hansotto Hatzig: Karl May and Sascha Schneider. Documents of a friendship . Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg 1967, especially pp. 102–152.
  • Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz : Karl May Bibliography 1913–1945 , Karl May Verlag Bamberg 2000. ISBN 3780201577
  • Peter Hofmann : Karl May and his gospel. Theological experiment on camouflage and hermeneutics , Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh 2016, esp.p. 75, 106, 124, 129 131, 145, 155.
  • Bernhard Kosciuszko: Karl May's drama Babel and Bible. Special issue of the Karl May Society No. 10/1978. ( Online version )
  • Michael Kunz: Premiere after 99 years. Karl May's rather unnoticed drama “Babel und Bibel” celebrated its long overdue premiere at the end of June thanks to a committed Westerwald school ensemble . In: Karl May & Co. No. 101 / September 2005, p. 40 f.
  • Christoph F. Lorenz: Foreword: How to get to the summit? Karl May as a poet, playwright and essayist . In: Light heights. Poetry and drama by Karl May , Bamberg / Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 1998, pp. 5–24.
  • Hainer Plaul: Illustrated Karl May Bibliography. With the participation of Gerhard Klußmeier . Edition Leipzig 1988. ISBN 3-361-00145-5 (or) KG Saur Munich – London – New York – Paris 1989. ISBN 3-598-07258-9
  • Martin Schenkel, Bernhard Kosciuszko: The drama Babel and the Bible. In: Gert Ueding (Ed.): Karl-May-Handbuch . Verlag Königshausen & Neumann Würzburg 2001, pp. 473–477. ISBN 3-8260-1813-3
  • Dietrich Schober: Babel and the Bible. Theater performance in Hachenburg on June 21, 2005 , lecture in Radebeul on June 24, 2005. In: KMG-Nachrichten No. 145 / September 2005, p. 27 f.
  • Heinz Stolte: The folk writer Karl May. Contribution to literary folklore . Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul near Dresden 1936 (also: Jena, University, dissertation, 1936); 2nd edition, reprint of the first edition from 1936. Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg 1979, ISBN 3-7802-3070-4 .
  • Hermann Wohlgschaft : The influence of the Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch on Karl May's "Babel and Bible" and his later work in general. In: Communications from the Karl May Society No. 89/1991 . ( Online version )
  • Hermann Wohlgschaft: "Babel and Bible". Approaches to “feminist theology” in Karl May's redemption drama. In: Yearbook of the Karl May Society 1991 , pp. 148–181. ( Online version )

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