The court master
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| Title: | The court master or advantages of private education |
| Genus: | tragicomedy |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz |
| Publishing year: | 1774 |
| Premiere: | April 22, 1778 |
| Place and time of the action: | Insterburg in Prussia, Heidelbrunn a. a .; Late 18th century |
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The Hofmeister (also: The Hofmeister or advantages of private education ) is a tragic comedy ( subtitled by the author with "A Comedy ") in five acts by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz , which is assigned to the literary movement of Sturm und Drang . The work was written in 1774 and is considered one of the poet's most important; Lenz used artistic forms in the drama, such as the situation technique or a scene arrangement, as it later became typical for Impressionism .
Lenz took the basic structure of the material about the love affair between a court master and his pupil from the story of Peter Abelard and Heloisa (the material was also adapted by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1761 for his epistolary novel Julie or The New Heloise ). This and Origen is explicitly referred to in the drama itself (II / 5 and V / 3).
content
First elevator
The action begins in East Prussia . The theologian Läuffer is looking for a job and finds a position as court master with Major von Berg, whose son Leopold he is supposed to teach "in all sciences, politeness and world manners" (pp. 6, 8 f.). Leopold is to become a soldier.
The Secret Council of Berg, the major's brother, turned down Runners from teaching at a city school. Fritz, the privy councilor's son, attends the city school and is among middle-class classmates, which the major does not like. One of his friends is Pätus, who will later play an important role for Fritz.
Leopold turns out to be lazy, ignorant and stupid. L Lauffer's initial payment of 300 ducats is reduced to 150 ducats. In return, he is supposed to teach his about fourteen-year-old daughter Gustchen Christian doctrine and drawing, but treat her with care, because she is the major's “only consolation” (p. 12 f.). Anyone who comes too close will be killed. This is the beginning of the first tragic development. Gustchen is in love with her cousin. She wants to be like the classic couple Romeo and Juliet with Fritz and makes an appointment with him to remain faithful during the upcoming separation. The major's family temporarily moves to Heidelbrunn and Fritz is supposed to go to Halle to study. The privy councilor von Berg overheard everything and thinks that their oath will be ineffective, because in the future they would only see themselves under witnesses. The second tragic development begins. Fritz is supposed to attend school for a year longer because Berg considers his oaths to be unreasonable.
second elevator
At the Heidelbrunn estate, the court master is meanwhile struggling with Gustchen because she seems to overlook him, but a more intimate relationship is emerging. --- Fritz longs for Gustchen in Halle, where he has actually only been studying for a year. His childhood friend and study partner Pätus tries to bring him together with girls so that Fritz can think of different things, he should also move in with him because Pätus has a coarse-friendly landlady. L Lauffer's salary has since been reduced to 40 ducats, he already has a relationship with Gustchen, she gives him what he would otherwise have been looking for in brothels. Gustchen feels sick, there are signs of pregnancy. Instead of Fritz (as Romeo), Läuffer now appears, who does not seem to know the Shakespeare play. The major toiled in the field to secure a place for his daughter in the hospital, believing she was sick, but in reality these are the first signs of pregnancy. Fritz vouched for Pätus in Halle because he could not pay his debts and ended up in prison. Patus does not receive any money from his father and wants to kill himself, but is stopped by his friend Bulwark, whereupon Patus flees.
third elevator
When the majoress informs the major about the relationship between Gustchen and the court master and then faints, the major goes mad with anger. Runner flees and finds refuge in the city school and is protected by the school teacher. Gustchen also flees and leaves no trace.
Fourth elevator
Major von Berg, who has not heard from his daughter for a year, wants to die in his boundless disappointment in the Russo-Ottoman War (1768–1774) . The privy councilor is in a similar situation: his son has fled and the creditors are looking for him. The major considers his family to be ruined, his nephew a "rascal" and his own daughter a "street whore". Meanwhile Gustchen has found shelter in the forest with the blind beggar Marthe and gave birth to her child there. She wants to go to the next village to inform her father, whom she dreamed of, that she is still alive. The major finds runner in the city school, where he has been working as a substitute teacher for a year, and shoots him; since Läuffer doesn't know anything about Gustchen, the major disappears again. Gustchen does not manage to notify the father and desperately throws himself into a pond, but is saved by the father. The major forgives Gustchen.
Fritz went to Leipzig with Patus to avoid the persecutors.
Fifth elevator
Blind Marthe finds his way to Läuffer's school with Gustchen's child because Gustchen has not come back. Runner recognizes his child.
Runner castrates himself and is praised for it by the school teacher. The schoolteacher gives a sermon dedicated to Läuffer, but he doesn't listen because he pays his attention to a beautiful girl named Lise. She also comes to him soon, the two kiss and marry, despite the schoolteacher's warning that he cannot have children, but she doesn't care because she already has enough worries about her ducks and chickens (p. 89, 22) . Fritz and Patus arrive in Insterburg after Patus had won money in the lottery and was able to pay for the trip . The privy councilor forgives Fritz. His son also sees his beloved Gustchen again. Fritz accepts Läuffer's child, but decides never to have his child raised by court masters.
The drama seems to end in a conciliatory way: the privy councilor reconciles with Fritz, who meets Gustchen; Runner should be happy with Lise.
Performances
The play appeared anonymously in 1774 and was premiered on April 22, 1778 by Friedrich Ludwig Schröder's Acting Society in the Theater am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg .
A production based on the original version was created in 1989 by the director Bruno Klimek for the Mannheim National Theater . The performance succeeded in making the almost cinematic narrative style of the complex piece, which seems to anticipate modern dramatic narrative techniques, so that it can be sensually experienced.
Edits
In 1940 Bertolt Brecht wrote the sonnet about the civil tragedy "Der Hofmeister" by Lenz :
Here you have Figaro on this side of the Rhine!
The nobility apprenticeship to the mob
The power over there wins and honor over there:
So it becomes a comedy over there and none here.
The poor want to
look into the blouse of the rich pupil instead of the literature .
But instead of tying the Gordian knot,
he, Lakai, only hides a cord.
Well, he sees that his member is
pulling up his bread basket at the same time.
So it is to choose, and he chooses.
His stomach growls, but his mind clears too.
He whines and grumbles and blasphemers and emasculates himself.
The poet's voice breaks when he tells it.
He revised the comedy itself in 1949/1950 for the Berliner Ensemble .
Secondary literature
- Franz Werner: Social bondage and 'bourgeois intelligentsia' in the 18th century. The organizing point of view in JMR Lenzen's drama "The court master or the advantages of private education" . Frankfurt (Rita G. Fischer Verlag) 1981. 324 pp.
- Rüdiger Bernhardt: JMR Lenz: The Hofmeister. King's Explanations and Materials (Vol. 441). C. Bange, Hollfeld 2006. ISBN 978-3-8044-1826-4
- Herbert Haffner: Lenz: The Hofmeister - The soldiers. R. Oldenbourgh, 1979.
- Ralf Sudau: The Hofmeister / The soldiers. Interpretations . Oldenbourg interpretations, 2003
- Author: Anonym, Lenz, JMR: Der Hofmeister, or advantages of private education. A Comedy .: review; Pages 368-370 in: Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek. 1765–96, Volume 27, 2nd volume, 1776, digital [1]
Radio plays
- SWR / MDR 2006: Der Hofmeister , editing and direction: Leonhard Koppelmann
Web links
- The Hofmeister (Leipzig 1774) ( DjVu format)
- The Hofmeister (Leipzig 1774) , as a digital facsimile, JMR Lenz Research Center, University of Mannheim
- The Hofmeister in Project Gutenberg ( currently not usually available for users from Germany )
- The court master in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Development history, work at the University of Düsseldorf (PDF; 13 kB)
- Nancy Thuleen: The tragic comedy of storm and stress: An investigation using the example of Lenzens Hofmeister . Essay.
Individual evidence
- ↑ H.-H. Henschen, L. Schüller: Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz . In: Kindler Compact: German Literature, 18th Century . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2015, p. 127
- ^ Brecht, Bertolt: Collected works in 20 volumes. Volume 9. Poems 2 . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1967, p. 610 .
- ^ Bertolt Brecht: Works . Large annotated Berlin and Frankfurt edition, 8: pieces, 8. Berlin a. a .: Structure 2003, p. 556