The Esperanza ship

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The ship Esperanza is a German radio play . It was written by Fred von Hoerschelmann in 1953 and has now been translated into around 20 languages.

characters

The voices:

  • Grove, captain of the Esperanza
  • Axel Grove, the son of Captain Grove
  • Bengtsen, first mate and right hand of the captain
  • Krucha, mate
  • Podbiak, sailor
  • Sailors
  • Megerlin
  • Edna
  • The landlord Sorriso
  • A man in the hiring office
  • A man in the boat

Time of action

The action takes place in 1953. Axel mentions that he last saw his father at the beginning of the Second World War and 13 years thereafter.

content

Summary

The young ordinary seaman Axel Grove is looking for a new wage and quickly finds what he is looking for, because the ship "Esperanza" (Spanish word for "hope") is in the harbor , which, as Axel is told, sails under the direction of a Captain Grove. Axel suspects that the captain is his father, who was believed to be dead, and he has great hopes, which later turns out to be correct, and despite being advised to do so, he hires on the "Esperanza". This ship, sailing under the Panamanian flag, turns out to be an old, rusted cargo ship and the captain is an alcoholic , who is drunk at the beginning of every voyage.

The "Esperanza" keeps a dark secret: Under the pretext of bringing illegal immigrants (migrants) to America, Captain Grove regularly takes them in the hold for a high price. In fact, the emigrants are never brought ashore, but are abandoned many miles offshore; there they drown miserably. Induced by the encounter with his son, however, Grove decides to stop this practice and actually let his stowaways disembark on land.

When Axel accidentally meets the seven people locked up in the hold and learns of the illegal crossing, he reveals the name of the ship to them. He learns that his father is no longer the role model he thought he was for years and confronts him. Father and son part in an argument.

In order not to endanger the information his son gave the migrants, the captain decides to expose the passengers to the high seas one last time. On the night they are supposed to be brought ashore, Axel sneaks under the assumption that they are on the coast, unnoticed under them and drowns with them.

Hours later, Megerlin, one of the emigrants, is found on the ship and reports that someone else disembarked in his place. It also turns out that an old seaman has taken over Axel's work. Only then does the captain realize that he has lost his son irretrievably.

Scenes

  • 1st scene: The man in the hiring office arranges a wage for Axel on the Esperanza.
  • 2nd scene: Axel with Sorriso.
  • 3rd scene: Sorriso and Megerlin.
  • 4th scene: Axel talks to Bengtsen as he is about to start work on the ship; later Krucha.
  • Scene 5: Bengtsen talks to the drunk Captain Grove.
  • Scene 6: A sailor talks to Axel.
  • Scene 7: Megerlin talks to Edna who was secretly smuggled onto the ship at night.
  • 8th scene: Axel and Grove talk. It turns out that Grove is Axel's father.
  • Scene 9: Podbiak and Krucha talk.
  • 10th scene: Megerlin and Edna talk.
  • 11th scene: Bengtsen and Krucha.
  • Scene 12: Bengtsen and Grove talk.
  • 13th scene: Axel and Bengtsen talk.
  • 14th scene: Axel talks to Megerlin and Edna, whom he heard and discovered in the Orlop .
  • Scene 15: Grove briefly with Bengtsen.
  • Scene 16: Megerlin, Axel and Edna speak again.
  • Scene 17: Grove and Bengtsen talk.
  • Scene 18: Axel and Grove talk; later Grove and Bengtsen.
  • 19th scene: Krucha and Bengtsen talk.
  • Scene 20: Grove and Bengtsen talk.
  • Scene 21: Krucha.
  • Scene 22: Grove and Bengtsen talk about how to do it so that Axel doesn't notice that the engine is off.
  • Scene 23: Krucha and the refugees
  • Scene 24: Grove and Bengtsen talk; later sailor, Krucha and Megerlin.
  • Scene 25: Old sailor and Grove talk because the sailor who relieved Axel from his job and Grove now notice that Axel has left with the migrants.
  • Scene 26: Bengtsen and Grove talk; Megerlin.

Interpretations

hope

"Esperanza" is Spanish and means "hope" in German. The most diverse people on board associate hopes with their stay there, most of which are not fulfilled:

  • The "illegals" hope for a better life in America. So Edna wants to escape the unworthy dependence on her stepfather and work in a factory and as a saleswoman. Shortly before the “illegals” are exposed, Krucha cynically informs them that they have arrived in the “land of longing”.
  • After his suspicion has been confirmed that the captain is his father, Axel hopes to be able to live with him. Later he apparently hopes to be able to start a new life in the USA with Edna, who seems to fascinate him.
  • Captain Grove hopes to leave the "desert" life behind and live with his son.
  • Groves' accomplices hope to (continue to) profit from the captain's criminal dealings.

desert

The unscrupulousness with which Captain Grove “disposed of” “human rubbish” on the high seas can also be seen as an echo of the atrocities he was confronted with during the Second World War . Already during the war he was faced with an “id” that wanted to destroy him, and by that he means the “enemies” as he regards the people with whom he has come into contact. After the war, the captain retained the habit of not seeing people in others: "Without enemies, it's only half a world.", Grove assesses the post-war conditions in which he sees a "desert". Like his son, who only experienced “the backside” of the war and is stateless as a displaced person , he has lost his “fatherland” and the pre-war idyll , which consisted of a house with a garden and fragrant flowers. His prosperity, of which he initially boasted about Axel, was not honestly earned, and his need for cleanliness and order was ultimately fascistoid . It is not Axel who is “miserable”, but the captain himself, who does not want to admit his moral depravity, even though he (even if too late) is quite able to see himself through the eyes of his son.

fate

In Hoerschelmann's radio play (according to Heinz Schwitzke) an “it” plays with it, “fate”: Captain Grove loses his honor in the eyes of his son and later his son because of his people smuggling. The refugees, in turn, become unsuspecting victims of their misjudgment of reality, which causes them to misunderstand the dangerous dynamics of the world around them and then experience how this strange, impersonal dynamic stands up against them and wants to destroy them. So it is not people, play and counterplay that grapple with each other as in the drama, but in Hoerschelmann's radio plays it is people on the one hand, an anonymous power on the other, who wrestle with one another. The radio play, which Schwitzke classifies as a " realistic problematic radio play ", is close to tragedy , but also fulfills the characteristics of a novella due to the way it is dealt with (it is an "unheard-of incident") .

Axel is compared by Schwitzke with Parzival : he had gotten into "a small, self-contained community of evil, a ship full of failed existences, a society of stealers and murderers". “And lo and behold: it almost makes everything change. If he had not wanted to be the savior, he would have been the savior; he was not Parzival enough to overcome evil, but also not conscious enough to see through it. "

Productions

Text output (selection)

  • The ship Esperanza: radio play. Schöningh, Paderborn 1961.
  • The ship Esperanza: radio play. Reclam, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-15-008762-6 .

literature

  • Heinz Schwitzke: The radio play. Dramaturgy and story. Cologne / Berlin 1963
  • Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Radio novelist: Fred von Hoerschelmann and the creation of the radio play "Das Schiff Esperanza" . In: Tiefenschöhe , Center for Media and Media Culture, University of Hamburg, WS 2002/03, pp. 22–24.

Remarks

  1. ↑ on Mediaculture online ( Memento from September 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ as PDF ( Memento from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )