The tiger Yusuf

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The Tiger Jussuf is a radio play by Günter Eich that exists in two versions from 1952 and 1962. The second version was broadcast less often. The frequent shape changes of the figures challenge the listener. The laws of logic are in fact largely overridden. Schwitzke calls the “complicated” piece the “erratic tiger story”. Piontek speaks of a “meta-realistic radio piece” and explains the “fairytale-like” constellation: If Yusuf takes the form of any person, he has to become a tiger.

In 1955 Günter Eich received the Karl Sczuka Prize for his “transformation piece” .

Production 1952

On August 15, 1952, the NWDR broadcast the version directed by Kurt Reiss .

fable

William, the tamer of the tiger Yusuf in the Vercelli Circus, receives a basket from the equestrian Anita. Instead, the woman marries Max Rimböck. William doesn't get over that. During the next performance, he went into the tiger cage and died in it. Yusuf, his master's head between his teeth according to the program, had bitten hard this time. And to make matters worse, William had carelessly left the cage door open. The tiger can escape into the night city park. The park is an unsafe place for the bright, bright animal. So he goes to the nearest coal shop and rolls around in Krudekoks . Yusuf then escapes into the bakery of the baker Richard Matthisson and is shot in Matthisson's coal cellar by the police or an alerted military patrol.

shape

Yusuf can have a reasonable conversation with people. He points out to William his lack of concentration. Most of the characters, especially Jussuf and Max, change their identities at will. The narrator Yusuf is omniscient and omnipresent. Shortly before the fatal bite, he shows the listener three couples who no longer understand each other. Anita and William have already been mentioned above. Then the baker's wife Paula scolds her husband, the master baker Richard, a coward. And Max's parents, the Kommerzienrat Rimböck and his wife Ottilie, have nothing more to say to each other. Immediately an outrageous game of confusion takes its course throughout the rest of the piece. After Williams' death, Max takes on the identity of Yusuf. That is not enough. Max still feels William within himself. As Max he enters the bakery, acts as Yusuf and exchanges identities with the cowardly baker, who suddenly becomes brave. Now the brave baker (the tiger) could be killed. But it's not that far yet. Max, who became a baker, is talking to the baker's wife Paula. She feels the strong character of the tiger and does everything it wants (the baker Max has not become a coward).

Max's mother Ottilie poisons her husband, the Kommerzienrat, and does not poison him either (he continues to act after his killing). Max takes on his mother's identity. That can't last, because he'll talk to his mother again later. Ottilie reveals to the son that she assumed the identity of Yusuf the last night in the park.

Yusuf locks Ottilie in the baker's coal cellar after exchanging identities with her. Max drugged his mother, the tigress, in the coal cellar with an overdose of sleeping pills dissolved in water. The miracles never end. Max seeks out his parents, takes on his father's identity and talks to his mother, who is actually - slumbering in the coal cellar - being shot by uniformed men.

Max finally surprises his wife Anita. He is William and looks at her with the eyes of the tiger Yusuf.

more details

Siegfried Franz wrote the music for the NWDR production . Siegfried Wischnewski spoke the Tiger Jussuf, Gerd Martienzen the Max Rimböck, Gisela Trowe the Anita, Wolfgang Wahl the William, Max Walter Sieg the baker, Inge Schmidt his wife Paula, Helmuth Peine the Kommerzienrat and Martina Otto his wife Ottilie.

Production 1962

On March 20, 1962, the BR broadcast the version directed by Otto Kurth .

Some differences to the first version

Günter Eich made the second version written in the winter of 1959 much easier to understand for the audience. The barely comprehensible logical balancing act of the first version was reduced to an almost tolerable minimum. The somewhat more economical change of personal identities in the second version is put into perspective with “changing the shape”, “transforming into an animal” and acting “against the laws of nature”. A logical blunder is excused by the narrator Max as a "bad joke" (the poisoned Mr. Rimböck continues to act - as in the first version - cheerfully). Regarding the not serious, comedic: The narrator Jussuf confesses that he wants to confuse the listener, lead him to the nose and lie. The attentive listener is no longer confronted with facts so abruptly, but these are for the most part worked out in preparation. For example, the piece can now be read under the tenor “Max and Anita will be a married couple”. The future couple get to know each other before marriage. Anita wants to fish a rich man and get to know her future in-laws before the wedding. The young woman has sixteen siblings and needs money. The Rimböck family is wealthy. Max is the only son of a factory owner and the company's junior boss.

The trainer William is actually Willi Schultze from Bretleben am Kyffhäuser . It is not the military, but the fire brigade, who hunt down Jussuf. But the fugitive tiger is killed by a hunter in the Spessart or perhaps in the Steigerwald .

Finally, it is not Max who looks at his Anita, but Anita at her Max from Yussuf's tiger eyes.

more details

Werner Haentjes wrote the music for the BR production . Hanns Ernst Jäger spoke the tiger Jussuf, Wolfgang Büttner the William, Margaret Carl the Anita, Max Mairich the baker, Lina Carstens his wife, Friedrich Domin the Kommerzienrat, Anne Kersten his wife and Erik Schumann the Max Rimböck.

reception

  • Günter Eich actually asks two questions in the piece: “Who am I?” And “Who are you?” Piontek assigns Günter Eich's radio plays to three classes - first, time pieces, second, satirical-ironic games, and third, dream / fairytale-like, but has a problem in classifying the tiger. Actually belonging to class three, the piece should also be classified in class two. Günter Eich shows those listener for whom life hardly offers a surprise "the plural of the self".
  • The “ Deutsche Zeitung ” wrote on June 3, 1960 that Günter Eich was “nothing new”.
  • Wagner quotes a BR press release in which both versions are compared: "... the poet in the new version emphasized the meditative, sophistic accents and thus ironically deepened the game about the human and predatory mentality."
  • Wagner mentions discussions in the " Donaukurier " of March 22, 1962 (Ewald Streeb: "Assumptions on the Shape") and in the " SZ " of March 23, 1962.

Recent comments

  • Alber writes that by killing his trainer, Yusuf is no longer a predator and can take on the nature of different characters (people) and articulate himself adequately. God is criticized in the second version.
  • On the “exchange of identities”: Günter Eich presumably changes the voices in his radio play in such quick succession because he wants to present different characters.
  • Schwitzke names one of the motifs for writing when he compares Günter Eich's audio piece with Grabbe's “ Joke, Satire, Irony and Deeper Meaning ” and Büchner's “ Leonce and Lena ”.
  • At one point in the radio play the councilor reads the newspaper. Martin uses that passage when considering a reader's reading comprehension.

literature

First edition of the second version

expenditure

Audio book

Spends used

  • Günter Eich: The Tiger Jussuf (I) (1952) . P. 673–707 in: Karl Karst (Ed.): Günter Eich. The radio plays 1. in: Collected works in four volumes. Revised edition. Volume II . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, without ISBN
  • Günter Eich: The Tiger Jussuf (II) (1959) . S. 539-576 in: Karl Karst (Ed.): Günter Eich. The radio plays 2. in: Collected works in four volumes. Revised edition. Volume III . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, without ISBN

Secondary literature

  • Heinz Schwitzke (Ed.): Reclam's radio play guide. With the collaboration of Franz Hiesel , Werner Klippert , Jürgen Tomm. Reclam, Stuttgart 1969, without ISBN, 671 pages
  • Heinz Piontek : Call and Enchantment. Günter Eich's radio play. (1955) pp. 112-122 in Susanne Müller-Hanpft (ed.): About Günter Eich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970 (edition suhrkamp 402), 158 pages, without ISBN
  • Sabine Alber: The place in free fall. Günter Eich's moles in the context of the entire work. Dissertation. Technische Universität Berlin 1992. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1992 (European university publications. Series I, German language and literature, vol. 1329), ISBN 3-631-45070-2
  • Sigurd Martin: The auras of the word-image. Günter Eich's mole poetics and the theory of inadvertent reading. Dissertation University of Frankfurt am Main 1994. Röhrig Universitätsverlag, St. Ingbert 1995 (Mannheimer Studien zur Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft, Vol. 3), ISBN 3-86110-057-6
  • Wilfried Barner (ed.): History of German literature. Volume 12: History of German Literature from 1945 to the Present . CH Beck, Munich 1994,
    ISBN 3-406-38660-1
  • Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Günter Eich and the radio. Essay and documentation. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1999, ISBN 3-932981-46-4 (publications of the German Broadcasting Archive ; Vol. 27)

annotation

  1. ↑ Wagner quotes a more indulgent paraphrase of the fact "total illogic" from an announcement of the broadcast event a week before the initial broadcast. “Die Ansage” wrote on August 7th, 1952: “... this radio play deals with real or in reality possible events ... not ... One must not deal with these ... changes that Yusuf is going through always apply the strict standard of logic; ... "(quoted in Wagner, p. 253, right column, 8th Zvo)

Web links

Notes on

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 182, 15. Zvo
  2. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 181, 9th Zvu
  3. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 181, 13th Zvu
  4. ↑ Piontek, p. 114, 4th Zvu
  5. ^ Piontek, p. 116, 22. Zvo
  6. ^ Piontek, p. 116, 12. Zvu
  7. ↑ Karst, Vol. II, p. 805, 9th Zvu
  8. ^ Wagner, p. 253, left page, 7th Zvo
  9. ↑ Karst, Vol. III, p. 766, entry p. 539
  10. ↑ Karst, Vol. III, p. 766, 12. Zvo
  11. ^ Wagner, p. 324, left column center
  12. ^ Piontek, p. 116, 19. Zvo
  13. ↑ Piontek, p. 114, 6th Zvu
  14. ↑ Piontek, p. 116, 10th Zvu
  15. ^ Die Deutsche Zeitung, quoted in Wagner, p. 326, left column, 17. Zvo
  16. ^ The BR cited in Wagner, p. 324, right column, 12. Zvo
  17. ↑ Alber, p. 109 below
  18. ↑ Alber, p. 110, 9th Zvu
  19. ↑ Barner, p. 249, 16. Zvu
  20. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 182, 21. Zvo
  21. ↑ Martin, p. 209