The Bockerer

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The Bockerer is a play by Ulrich Becher and Peter Preses .

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With the annexation of Austria , the German Reich began to disrupt the life of the simple butcher Karl Bockerer. His son Hansi has already succumbed to the fascination of the Nazis, his wife Binerl is drawn to their marches. Suddenly his friend and tarot partner Rosenblatt had to leave Vienna head over heels. Only Mr. Hatzinger remains as a friend.

Humanity is disappearing, war is inevitable. Bockerer no longer understands the world. But he keeps his sharp wit, his snappy humor and his quick wittedness. Mischievous and at the same time prudent, the Bockerer begins passive resistance against the “Thousand Year Reich”.

To the formation

Friedrich Torberg created the figure of a "Mr. Neidinger" very early on, after an allegedly real, regime-critical butcher from Vienna. He published scenic sketches (with drawings by Bil Spira, who had fled to Paris) in the monarchist magazine Die Österreichische Post (1938 to 1939) , which was published in Paris and designed by emigrated Austrian writers and artists .

Around 1940, the figure of a “Herr Neidinger” also appeared in the Austrian cabaret in exile “Laterndl” in London. A personification of the “Viennese folk character”, who craftily-cunningly-stupidly struggles through the pitfalls of Nazi rule. One of these scenes is entitled “The fateful birthday” and could be described as one of the “primal scenes” for the “Bockerer”. It can be assumed that Peter Preses contributed to this scene as a writer and actor. Other scenes of the "Bockerer" are likely to have been inspired by Preses' artistic work in this cabaret.

An anecdote reports that the writer Alexander Roda Roda was sitting in a coffee house while in exile in Zurich, waiting for his son-in-law Ulrich Becher. Becher told his father-in-law: “There is still someone in Vienna who is against Hitler.” To Roda Roda's astonished question about his identity, the young author replied: “A meat chopper in Paniglgasse”.

A few years later the first scenes of “Bockerer” by Ulrich Becher and Peter Preses appeared in the “Austro American Tribune” in New York. Friedrich Torberg found himself robbed of the idea of ​​his "Mr. Neidinger" and sued the intellectual authorship before a New York court. Torberg lost the process and the long friendship and colleague with Ulrich Becher was over.

On October 2, 1948, the play was premiered under the direction of Günther Haenel in the “New Theater an der Scala” in Vienna.

Many years passed before the next production, which only took place in 1963 in Germany, at the Tübingen State Theater. In the same year the play was filmed for Austrian television with Fritz Muliar in the lead role. In 1978 the play achieved a great success in Mannheim, which the Austrian theater could no longer avoid. “Der Bockerer” got its greatest popularity in 1981 through the film adaptation by Franz Antel.

Becher himself calls the piece: "A twisting satire on seven years of Hitlerism in Austria."

premiere

The play was premiered as "tragic farce " on October 2, 1948 at the Scala in Vienna. Günther Haenel directed the set, and Teo Otto created the set . The title role was played by Fritz Imhoff , followed by Karl Paryla as Alois Seichgruber, Hans Putz as SS man Gstettner, Wolfgang Heinz as Rosenblatt, Günther Haenel as watchmaker boy and in other roles Anton Duschk , Eduard Loibner, Maria Gabler, Hella Ferstl, Trude Hajek, Oskar Willner, Rudolf Rhomberg and Otto Tausig .

The theater was founded by actors who had returned from exile and was still in the Soviet occupation zone. Therefore, the theater suffered from the nickname "Communist Theater".

“Die Österreichische Zeitung” praised the play in one of its editions: “No drama, but certainly a dramatic monograph, a character study, and an extremely precise, vivid, gripping one. Put in a very real perspective. With an excellent knowledge of time and space. Truly, a tragic farce full of unforgettable moments. "

On the other hand, the “Arbeiter Zeitung” thought little of the authors: “The two authors present the honorable master selector Bockerer, who could not come to terms with the“ greatness ”of the period between 1933 and 1945, in a well-intentioned picture-sheet manner, but with all too flattening black White drawing on the stage. They only succeed in a very few scenes ”.

With 80 performances, “Der Bockerer” was one of the most successful pieces at Scala. But due to the opposition of Torberg, who in the post-war period boycotted everything that was only burdened with a touch of communism, the play initially experienced little popularity and no resumption after the past season.

Television game

The play was filmed for the first time as a television play for Austrian radio , directed by Michael Kehlmann . It was first broadcast on January 26, 1963. Fritz Muliar played the title role . Other contributors were Marianne Gerzner , Heinz Trixner , Hans Olden , Carl Merz , Franz Böheim and Johann Sklenka and Günther Haenel (in the role of Mr Knabe; he was the director of the premiere of the Bockerer in 1948).

Movie

The eponymous film series Der Bockerer by Franz Antel is a continuation of the original drama about the history of Austria . The concept for the series comes from Carl Szokoll . The main actor is the Austrian actor Karl Merkatz , who plays the role of the Viennese butcher Karl Bockerer, which he had previously given in a performance at the Vienna Volkstheater (1980, director: Dietmar Pflegerl , set design: Hans Hoffer , with Hilde Sochor , Heinz Petters ) .

The first part of the series is based on the play by Becher and Preses, individual scenes were added by HC Artmann . The other film adaptations, there are four parts in total, have nothing to do with the original play, except for the person of the "Bockerer".

output

  • Ulrich Becher, Peter Preses: The Bockerer . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1984. ISBN 3-499-14850-1 (= rororo theater, volume 4850)

swell

  • “Authors then and now. Literary-historical examples of changed horizons of effect ”, edited by Gerhard P. Knapp, 1972
  • "Cabaret and Satire in the Resistance 1933-1945", Communications of the Institute for Science and Art No. 1/2, 1985
  • "Handbook of Anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism in the past and present ”, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin / Munich / Boston, 2015
  • "Theater in Germany 1945 - 1966. Its events - its people", Günter Rühle, 2014
  • “From Panigl- to Pinaglgasse. A digression from Bobo to Prolo Vienna ”, Beppo Beyerl & Rudi Hieblinger, 2010
  • “I live in apocalysis. Letters to Parents ”, edited by Martin Roda Becher, Verlag der Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft, 2012
  • “Exile Switzerland”, lecture by Ulrike Oedl, University of Salzburg 2002
  • Tournee program (directed by Thomas Stroux), 1993
  • Program booklet Landestheater Salzburg, 1994
  • Program booklet Lichtenberger Bühne, 2008
  • Program booklet Wilhering, 2014
  • Program booklet Stummer Schrei Tirol, 2014
  • Program booklet cellar stage Puchheim, 2015