The tower (Hofmannsthal)

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The tower is a tragedy by the Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929), based on Pedro Calderón de la Barca's famous play Life a Dream . It is considered a central work of his last creative years. From summer 1920 to late autumn 1927, the poet struggled for the valid shape and form of the drama that was appropriate for the stage.

action

Contents sketch by Hofmannsthal:

“The play is a tragedy in five acts; it is set in a kingdom of Poland, closer to timeless saga than history, and in a past century whose atmosphere is most closely related to that of the 17th. The present scene, the first of the play, shows the main character (Sigismund) in her deepest humiliation, from which she was lifted up the steps of the throne, then thrown back into the dungeon night, pulled out of the dungeon by a terrible revolution, finally as King and ruler are overtaken by an early death in a legitimate and revolutionary sense at the same time. ”(Published in the Christmas edition of the“ Leipziger Tageblatt ”in 1924 ; there the opening scene of the first version is reprinted)

Origin and different versions

The starting point of the work is Calderón's famous play Life a Dream , with which Hofmannsthal has repeatedly occupied himself since 1901. Possibly belonged to Franz Grillparzer dramatic tales The dream life , often performed at the Burgtheater and influenced by what is mentioned Calderon's drama, the first theater experiences of very young Hofmannsthal. When designing the central figure Sigismund, the author was also influenced by the myth of Kaspar Hauser . In terms of formal and aesthetic design, the piece does not follow the classic tragedy, but in many respects the German tragedy of the 17th century (which Walter Benjamin in particular pointed out in his two reviews). This is especially true for the Kinderkönig versions. The tragedy was printed in three divergent versions: 1923 (Acts I and II) and 1925 (Acts III-V) in the journal Neue Deutsche Posts ; 1925 in a streamlined form in a single print of the Bremen press (in this version the duplication of the gypsy in the 5th act has been withdrawn); 1928 with three completely rewritten final acts published by S. Fischer Verlag .


The main difference between the versions:

The first two versions end with the fatally injured Sigismund handing over his rule to the child king who founded a kingdom of peace. In the last version, the rebel has Olivier Sigismund insidiously murdered by one of his snipers. In this version, the field claims in the end, instead of the nonviolent child king, the anarchic power man. - Max Reinhardt in particular had a great influence on the last version ; Martin Buber , Max Mell and Rudolf Alexander Schröder also influenced the author through their constructive criticism . About this as well as the numerous - mostly newly discovered - literary sources (in addition to Calderón, among others, works by Grimmelshausen , Gryphius , Schiller , Brentano , Burdach , Dostojewskij and Paul Claudel as well as Walter Benjamin's tragedy book, which Hofmannsthal had in manuscript before its publication) and Volumes 14.1 and 14.2 of the Critical Hofmannsthal Edition (Verlag S. Fischer), published by the Germanist Werner Bellmann from Wuppertal, provide comprehensive information about the complex genesis of the three drama versions .

World premieres

World premieres: February 4, 1928 at the Prinz-Regenten-Theater in Munich , the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg and the Stadttheater Würzburg (the productions were based on the third version of the play).

First performance of the Kinderkönig version: June 10, 1948 in the Ronacher , the branch of the Vienna Burgtheater (31 performances).

interpretation

With the tragedy Hofmannsthal attempts to poetically design and interpret aspects of the political and social reality of his time. At the heart of the work, which is based on the experience of the First World War, are the conflict of mind and power and the problem of legitimate rule. The action is embedded in a - temporally remote - historical-mythical event. As a result, the piece takes on that specific form that Hofmannsthal himself allowed to speak of the "superhistorical aspect of this tragedy", of the "floating between a past and a present."

Rudolf Alexander Schröder wrote in his review of the Kinderkönig version: “The problem of rule is modified in five, yes, if you want, in six characters. […] All of these figures are just variants of the main theme. It is carried out on and in the person of Sigismund. ”( Neue Zürcher Zeitung , June 20, 1926.)

reception

Arthur Schnitzler wrote in his diary (October 30, 1925): “Read the“ Thurm ”(from Hugo to Calderon) to the end. A superfluity on a very high level. "

Thomas Mann judged the Kinderkönig version of the tower in 1926, alluding to the contemporary references of the play, highlighted by Hofmannsthal himself, and to its political content: “It is a work of extraordinary beauty and an involuntary nature which I find in the most touching and venerable sense feel poetic. (…) In any case, it shames a youth who would like to feel alone as the bearer of time and its revolution, and pretend that we have slept through the last 12 years and are living unsuspectingly in the old. "

In July 1929 Thomas Mann wrote in a commemorative article: " The tower , his most painful and chaotic poem, which he loved as much as his fate, is the monument to Hofmannsthal's struggle with the new, the revolution, the youth."

Walter Benjamin wrote in a letter to Hofmannsthal on July 11, 1925: “In truth, I see in your work a tragedy in its purest, canonical form. And at the same time I feel the extraordinary power of which this form, despite the widespread educational opinion, is capable in its highest representations. "

Carl Burckhardt met Hofmannsthal in the winter of 1923/1924 in Paris: “The tragedy“ Der Turm ”describes the most severe challenge in the poet's work. The ancient period clothes he chose for the characters in this tragedy are irrelevant; this drama deals with the present more directly than any of his other works. The second conclusion of the never really completed piece is hopeless. He brings doom. Defeats of unprecedented proportions threatened even when Hofmannsthal carried out this work, which, despite its external coping, had to remain an attempt. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Broch: Hofmannsthal und seine Zeit , in: Dichten und Denk, Essays Volume I, ed. by Hannah Arendt, Rhein Verlag, Zurich, 1955, p. 119
  2. ↑ Carl J. Burckhardt: Encounters , Zurich 1958, p. 112f.

Bibliography

  • Norbert Altenhofer: "When time will wake us up ..." Hofmannsthal's "Tower" as a political tragedy . In: Hofmannsthal research . Vol. 7. Freiburg i. Br. 1983. pp. 1-17.
  • Werner Bellmann: Afterword . In: Hugo von Hofmannsthal. "The Tower" . Edited by WB Reclam, Stuttgart 2000. pp. 220-246.
  • Erika Brecht: Memories of Hugo von Hofmannsthal . Innsbruck 1946. [p. 69-72]
  • Hermann Kunisch : Spirit and Power. Hugo von Hofmannsthal's occidental-Christian historical and state consciousness in his drama "The Tower". In: Annual and conference reports of the Görres Society 1985 . Cologne 1986. pp. 22-49.
  • Jakob Laubach: Hugo von Hofmannsthal's tower seals . Kempten 1954.
  • Katharina Meiser (ud N. Katharina Maria Herrmann): Hugo von Hofmannsthal's late drama “Der Turm” - struggle for redemption from the 'malicious unreality' of modernity. In: New German Review 23 (2008), pp. 7-25.
  • Walter Naumann: Hofmannsthal's drama “The Tower” . In: Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 62 (1988) issue 2. pp. 307-325.
  • William H. Rey: Hofmannsthal's "The Tower" . In: The German Drama. Interpretations . Edited by Benno von Wiese. Vol. 2. Bagel, Düsseldorf 1964. pp. 267-285.
  • Max Rychner: Hofmannsthal's "Tower" (1954) . In: MR: Welt im Wort. Literary essays . Zurich 1949. pp. 211–245.
  • Rudolf Alexander Schröder: A dramatic poem by Hugo von Hofmannsthal . In: RA Sch .: Collected works in five volumes . Vol. 2. Berlin / Frankfurt a. M. 1952. pp. 852-860. [First printed in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , June 20, 1926.]