The general and the gold

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Data
Title:
Genus: play
Original language: German
Author: Bruno Frank
Premiere: October 5, 1932
Place of premiere: Schauspielhaus Munich
Place and time of the action: California / Washington, 1838–1880
people
  • Suter
  • Rüttimann, his friend
  • Gloria, a mestizo
  • Lincoln, President of the United States
  • The governor of California
  • Don Alfonso, Spanish officer
  • Don Luis, ditto
  • Manager Jensen
  • Administrator O'Connor
  • Jonathan Rowley, agent
  • Prescott, secret writer
  • Captain Campbell
  • Torres, owner of a playhouse
  • Tuxley, police lieutenant
  • The Mayor of San Francisco
  • His ward clerk
  • Senator Moore
More people 
  • Stokes, lawyer
  • Stone, lawyer
  • Settleton, lawyer
  • A father from the provinces
  • A mother from the provinces
  • Your little boy
  • A hunter
  • A young man
  • Another young man
  • One player
  • Another player
  • A drinker
  • Another drinker
  • A dice thrower
  • A second dice
  • A bureau clerk
  • A constable
  • The negro Jim
  • Senators
  • Councilors
  • Citizen
  • Musicians
  • Young ladies
  • soldiers
  • police officers
  • White and colored servants

The general and the gold. Play in a prologue and eight pictures from 1932 is a play by Bruno Frank . The premiere took place on October 5, 1932 in the Munich Schauspielhaus. The play became a great public success in Germany and London. It was the last play that Bruno Frank wrote before emigrating from Germany. The printed edition of the piece was published in 1932 by Drei Masken-Verlag in Berlin.

Overview

Johann August Sutter.

The play depicts the life of the Swiss emigrant Johann August Sutter between the conquest in Northern California in 1839 and his death in Washington in 1880 , the story of a man between " Michael Kohlhaas and Don Quixote ". Sutter built a thriving empire in California with vast estates and farms. As a result of the great run for California gold, Sutter's property was destroyed. In decades of endless lawsuits, he sued for damages before going mad at the end of his life.

action

prolog

Together with his loyal friend Rüttimann, Sutter “shaggled” around the world for three years before they gained a foothold in Northern California in 1838. Prophetically he proclaims to his friend: “Here is paradise. California! California! ”Sutter brought Gloria, a native, with him from Hawai, whom he takes as a wife, but does not marry.

First picture

A few years later Sutter built up an empire with blooming landscapes that he calls New Helvetia . The Mexican governor visits Sutter and gives him the land as a gift from the Spanish king. Rüttiman rushed back from the sawmill in Coloma, where he found three gold nuggets. Sutter doesn't want to know anything about the gold: "The hell filth stays in the ground." He orders Rüttimann to remain silent and explains to him why he wants nothing to do with gold: “Look, Uli, what we have achieved in the country. . . everything ripens and grows up and flourishes, and a thousand people live on us, and our abundance from a gracious earth goes out into the world and makes people satisfied. But gold does not fill you up. Gold is nothing for eating and living and being happy - gold is a bogus that people have made for themselves - an accepted thing and only at home in people's brains. "

Second picture

Gloria, who witnessed the conversation between Sutter and Rüttiman, trumpeted the secret and left Sutter. Almost all workers run away from him: driven by the gold rush, they chase after happiness. Sutter's farms, his fields and his cattle are decaying. The expected troop of soldiers who are supposed to bring the gold diggers to reason does not come, the soldiers have deserted, they too have succumbed to the gold rush.

Third picture

Together with Pedro Torres, Gloria runs the “Polka” playhouse in San Francisco, a bar with a bar, gaming tables and a weighing table where she personally converts the gold diggers' finds into cash. Many of them are addicted to drinking and gambling, and the place is a real "gold mine". One of the guests announces that Sutter is going to San Francisco tomorrow and will be appointed general. Gloria will take this opportunity to pay a "visit" to Sutter's house with Torres.

Fourth picture

Sutter rides in a triumphal procession to San Francisco City Hall. Before the start of the festival, the secretary gives the mayor the news that Sutter's property has been raided and devastated. Senator Moore gives the speech and appoints Sutter, who is not yet aware of his misfortune, to general on behalf of the President. For his part, Sutter is now giving a speech and mercilessly settling accounts with all who have robbed him of his country: “ I complain to all of you immigrants who came to steal from me. I am suing the authorities who do not want to protect my rights. I complain to the congress of these states, the community is holding on to murderers and thieves - I complain ... ”An immense commotion rises, the band intones the national anthem with“ immense roar ”, and Sutter's further speech fades into nothing.

Fifth picture

When Sutter learns of the attack on New Helvetia, he hurries back immediately. Gloria organized the attack and stole the document that identifies him as the rightful owner of New Helvetia. Senator Moore pays Sutter a visit on the way back to Washington. With his speech, Sutter had turned the whole population against him, saying that he had become "the most honored and celebrated man in this state the most hated". The military had to put down the unrest that flared. He, Senator Moore, had telegraphed Washington, saying that Congress was ready to compensate Sutter "for all your alleged claims" with the sum of one million dollars. Sutter, however, firmly refuses: “I don't want any money. ... I want my rights. "

Gold discovery at Sutter's sawmill in 1849, part of the painting frieze of American history in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, 1877.

Sixth picture

White House in Washington on the eve of Lincoln's assassination. Abraham Lincoln reads in a book by the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer : “A happy life is impossible. The highest thing that a person can achieve is a heroic curriculum vitae ... “The civil war is over and the liberation of slaves has started , but at what price! Lincoln asks his secretary, Prescott, to show Sutter in immediately: “Don't keep him waiting! He spends his life waiting. That must be horrific. ”In the conversation, Sutter believes that he recognizes parallels between Lincoln's persistence with which he fought for the liberation of slaves and his trial, which he has been conducting for 17 years and in which he acquired the property rights to“ his ”land (including San Francisco), suing 17,000 individuals, and seeking hundreds of millions in damages. Lincoln recognizes the futility of Sutter's maddened attempts to get “his” justice and graciously admonishes him: “ You are alive! That's really how you live ! Stand up! You don't fight against a world. ”Sutter shows that he is incapable of any insight. The president will make him pay a pension "so you can fight". When Sutter calls Lincoln the “happiest man in these states,” Lincoln argues: “600,000 people died in this war. ... What I have achieved remains uncertain - you can change laws, but not the human heart. ”And he hands Sutter the Schopenhauer book and“ points to the point marked ”.

Seventh picture

Washington, the office of the three lawyers who are conducting Sutter's hopeless trials, but only to mercilessly pull the last penny out of his pocket. The clerk announces Sutter's visit: “The old fool is here.” Seventy-year-old Sutter comes with his old friend Rüttimann. The lawyers mimick interest in the conversation with Sutter and are not afraid to squeeze even more money out of him. Rüttimann begs Sutter: "Oh Hans, none of this has any more value!" But Sutter is unshakable. Gloria shows up with the royal deed of gift that she once stole. But it has lost its value, and Gloria's last attempt to get the big money through Sutter fails.

Eighth picture

Sutter, “a ruined old man, close to eighty”, and Rüttimann climb the steps of the Capitol in Washington. Congress is due to rule on Sutter's cause today. The ascent is beyond Sutter's strength and he sends Rüttimann forward. Sutter sits down on the steps, “about to nod off from weakness”. Those passing by ignore or overlook him. Sutter says to a little boy: “I get mountains of money. More than I want I'll get it today, my boy. ”The boy's mother says piqued:“ It's strange that the madmen are left here in front of the Capitol. ”Two young men mock the old man, who is serious about their personalities friendly replies. Rüttimann comes back to Sutter and exclaims: "You have postponed it ... postponed again ... it will never be decided." But the lifeless person no longer answers, he is spared this last crux.

background

The fate of the Swiss emigrant Johann August Sutter had already been dealt with by other writers before Bruno Frank in the 1920s:

  • The Swiss writer Blaise Cendrars brought out a novel biography about Sutter in 1925: "L'Or - La merveilleuse histoire du Général Johann August Suter", German: Gold. The fabulous story of General Johann August Suter.
  • The Swiss playwright Caesar von Arx dedicated the play “The Story of General Johann August Suter” to Sutter in 1929.

Bruno Frank did not try to present Sutter in a historically accurate way. In the resolution for the print edition he notes: “Suter and the general line of his fate are historical. Incidentally, almost all situations and most of the characters are fictitious. Nothing is known historically of a meeting between Lincoln and Suter. The mayor's speech, however, was actually held. "

At the beginning of July 1932 he wrote to a friend: “The day after tomorrow I will go to the country for a few weeks and hope to finish my play there. It is something that seriously occupies me and is passionate about it, and it has done me very good to plunge into something right and whole again after all sorts of purpose and ancillary work (which of course I also include " Nina "). "

When Blaise Cendrars complained that Bruno Frank had improperly taken over the death of Sutter he had invented on the steps of the Congress Palace, he defended himself against the plagiarism allegation that he had only drawn from the Encyclopaedia Americana, the Brockhaus and the sources. When he conceived the piece, he hadn't known anything about Cendrars' book, and he didn't get to know the great hours until 1934.

Bruno Frank was involved in the script for the Hollywood film adaptation of "Sutter's Gold" alongside Blaise Cendrars and others. The film, made in 1936, however, became a failure in American cinemas.

reception

  • Tim Klein on the Munich premiere, October 7, 1932:
Frank now gives this adventurous résumé his own emotional interpretation by making Suter an enemy and despiser of all gold.
  • Joseph Sprengler on the Munich premiere, Die Literatur, Volume 35, October 1932:
You can overthrow and change anyone and everyone, only one thing - and that is probably the bitterest wisdom of the piece - weak human hearts. Still no pessimism. If Bruno wanted to teach Frank something, it is reality. To really see her for once and to be modest in her, that is of course no longer the new type of the hero, after all, of the simply accepting, strong person. Frank's play is at the same time a political play, just as his play “Twelve Thousand” had already been state-political. It goes against those romantics who believe that the wheel of time can be turned back according to their heads. It is a polished, intellectual piece and therefore again has the aphorisms and a spiritual comparison as the climax. However, it also has the flaw of consciousness that it is too indiscriminately conscious in the means by taking the effects of all styles, now German in characters, now French in speaking, now Romance, now milieu, and instead of Tragic comedy itself also once a farce scene.
  • Werner Richter, Berliner Tageblatt, October 8, 1932:
Is it an anti-capitalist, so very timely piece? No - because it lacks any trace of accusatory sharpness. Its tone is more of the plaintive elegiac statement, as the folk song sometimes has.
  • Alfred Möller on the performance at the Graz Opera House, Neue Freie Presse (Vienna), January 13, 1933:
The last pictures bring little surprise because they show the struggle of money against law, a struggle in which the question: "Who will win" is decided from the start with some knowledge of history and people and is so easy to answer that no exciting tension can arise.
  • Herbert Günther: Revolving stage of the time. Friendships, Encounters, Fates, page 92:
The situation came to a head. In a letter [Bruno Franks] dated July 2, 1932, it says: “... The day after tomorrow I will go to the country for a few weeks and hope to finish my play there. It's something that seriously occupies me and is passionate about it, and it did me very good to plunge into something right and whole again after all sorts of purpose and side work (which of course I also include " Nina "). I believe that you will enjoy General Suter's spectacle. "
When I confirmed that he had more than pleasure in this play “The General and the Gold”, the reply immediately came: “Thank you very much for your dear lines. You have been a real pleasure to me. You can also see from the fact that I didn't wait until it went to press how eager I was to show you this youngest child. I also find myself that it looks very vital. "
  • Bruno Frank's biographer Sascha Kirchner judged the piece in 2009:
Sutter is ridiculous in the hopelessness of his struggle, in his failing idealism, to be called tragic at best. Read in the context of Bruno Frank's complete works, he reminds us of Friedrich from a distance, but no tangible result can be ascribed to his heroism. He does not serve a big idea that would be in the service of many people, but pursues his self-interest in a stubborn way. Sutter, although sympathetic to him, is ultimately a reactionary who suffers from a loss of reality.

Print output

  • The general and the gold. Acting in a prologue and eight pictures. Berlin: Three masks, 1932, pdf .

literature

  • Herbert Günther: Revolving stage of the time. Friendships, encounters, fates. Hamburg: Wegner, 1957, page 92.
  • Frank, Bruno. In: Renate Heuer (editor): Lexicon of German-Jewish authors. Archive Bibliographia Judaica, Volume 7: Feis – Frey, Munich 1999, pages 250–268, here: 265–266.
  • Sascha Kirchner: The citizen as an artist. Bruno Frank (1887–1945) - life and work. Düsseldorf: Grupello, 2009, pages 194–197, 259.
  • Joseph Sprengler: [Theater review of the world premiere of Der General und das Gold in the Munich Schauspielhaus]. In: Die Literatur, Volume 35, Issue 3, December 1932, pages 154-155.

Footnotes

  1. Today the family name is mostly written as Sutter. Frank still used the original family name Suter.
  2. #Kirchner 2009 , page 197.
  3. #Kirchner 2009 , page 195.
  4. #Kirchner 2009 , pages 194–197.
  5. Stefan Zweig: The discovery of Eldorado, online .
  6. # Günther 1957 .
  7. #Kirchner 2009 , page 259.
  8. #Kirchner 2009 , page 195.
  9. # This year 1999 .
  10. # Sprengler 1932
  11. # This year 1999 .
  12. # This year 1999 .
  13. # Günther 1957 .
  14. #Kirchner 2009 , page 197.