The young Medardus

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The young Medardus is a dramatic story in a prelude and five acts by Arthur Schnitzler , which was successfully premiered on November 24, 1910 in the Burgtheater in Vienna under the direction of Hugo Thimig . The piece was played in the house until 1932. On March 27, 1914, the author received the Raimund Prize for the drama .

The young Medardus, a prevented hero of the type of Lord of Hamlet , turns his last heroic act against himself and dies in the process.

History of origin

Schnitzler wrote the drama on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Aspern . The play is from May to October 1809 in and around Vienna. On May 13, 1809 , Napoleon took Vienna. Five months later, on October 13th, an attempt by the young German Friedrich Stapß on the Emperor of the French failed in Schönbrunn . Schnitzler takes both events as the cornerstone of his drama. The Viennese court reacted hostile to the play. At the request of the censors, Schnitzler had to rename the Berry ducal emigrant family to Valois . Schnitzler invented the episodes about the Valois emigrant house in Vienna. The author used diary entries from Caroline Pichler's "Memories from My Life" to depict Viennese citizens .

content

The Valois family is in exile in Austria near Vienna. The 20-year-old François, Prince of Valois, wants to marry Agathe. The young girl is the daughter of the proud Viennese bookseller widow Franziska Klähr . The prince is not allowed to marry by his family. The Valois lay claim to the French throne. François and Agathe take hands and go into the Danube. The 21-year-old militant Medardus Klähr, brother of the dead, meets Princess Helene von Valois at the funeral of the lovers. This is François' 20 year old sister. Medardus shares his patriotic sentiments and hatred of Napoleon with his mother. Actually, the bourgeois family Klähr and the ducal family Valois have the aggressive Corsican as their common enemy. But a scandal creates bad blood. Helene insults the dead at the double grave. Medardus, who blames the Valois family for the death of his sister, gives Helene the appropriate answer on the spot. Helene then promises her cousin Bertrand, the Marquis of Valois, marriage if he kills Medardus in a duel. The hot spur Medardus is lucky. He is only seriously injured by the Marquis.

Helene mourns her brother. Now that he has left the world, the family's hopes for the French throne are gone. Helene makes inquiries about the injured man. She sends her maid to the Klährs' apartment. Medardus wants to take revenge on the beautiful princess for the death of his sister and wants to "have a couple of wonderful nights" with Helene. He gets it. When Medardus found out that Helene was planning to marry, he volunteered to defeat the fortress of Vienna against the advancing Napoleonic troops. He thinks this is the way to appear at Helene's wedding. Helene lives outside the walls of Vienna. Medardus himself doesn't quite know whether he is driven by love or hate. In any case, he wants to die. Helene, who still wants to bring the Valois to the French throne, wants to harness Medardus to her cart. Napoleon, who has meanwhile taken Vienna, resides in Schönbrunn. Helene presses forward to ask for the imperial permission for the Valois family to return to France. Helene was soon to be considered one of Napoleon's lovers among the Viennese. Medardus is supposed to kill Napoleon on Helene's orders. The young Viennese hates the conqueror and had already toyed with the idea of ​​assassination. But in Medardus, the "avenger of his fatherland" Austria, something suddenly broke. He doesn't want to be the Valois tool. That's how it happens. On the eve of the peace treaty dictated by Napoleon to the Austrians, the Corsican holds a parade in the courtyard of Schönbrunn Palace. The Viennese population has access to this demonstration of military strength. Medardus sneaks up the castle stairs in the direction of Napoleon and also in the direction of Helene. The young Medardus, whom Helene gets in the way, stabs the young woman and is imprisoned. Napoleon wants to give Medardus freedom. After all, the assassin got rid of a woman whose family is aspiring to the French throne. Medardus replies to the surprising offer that he wanted to kill Napoleon. He sticks to the claim and is shot by the French for it.

Parallel to this tragic "love story", Schnitzler also puts the Viennese citizens on stage. Their fight against Napoleon is described. More precisely, Schnitzler represents the pathetic failure of the citizens. There are, however, two exceptions. Franziska Klähr's brother, master saddler Jakob Eschenbacher, a 50-year-old captain of the bourgeois grenadiers, pays his civil courage with his life - even after the surrender. He is shot dead by the French. And then Anna Berger, a young master turner's daughter , is the friend of the young Medardus. When Medardus learned to love Helene, who has royal blood in her veins, he no longer cares about Anna at all. The girl reports to the hospital. She is unable to cope with the strenuous service and dies from overwork and grief. Your parents are made of different materials. After their initial enthusiasm for the war, both have mastered the art of retreat. Mr and Mrs Föderl must also be counted among the opportunists. Their mood finally changes from an initial sensationalism to fearful dubiousness. Even more pathetic is the appearance of the 28-year-old delicatessen dealer Wachshuber to watch. When the French enemy approached Vienna, he went to the arsenal , armed himself heavily there and killed a French courier under the protection of the mob - at the peak of the Viennese "counterattacks" presented in the play. After the Austrian surrender, Wachshuber changed fronts and served the victors as an informer. He revengefully betrays Eschenbacher.

Quote

Helene: "How happy will we be!"
Medardus: "Happy! - We won't ... We have too much to forget! ... You and I! - No luck for us, Helene ... intoxication ... dream ... death."

reception

Contemporaries

  • On November 1, 1909, Schnitzler reads almost the entire Medardus to a few friends. Hofmannsthal replies: The strong plot, carried out by Helene and Medardus, actually doesn't need the historical background from the events of the summer of 1809.
  • Brandes registers the social criticism that is articulated, for example, in the "casual frivolity" of the Viennese "philistines".

"Comedy of the Heroic"

  • Perlmann analyzes: Because Medardus initially gets involved with Helene, instead of punishing her for her abuse at the double grave and thus avenging his sister, he is gradually becoming disillusioned and falling into a personality crisis . Guthke's "History and Poetics of German Tragicomedy" is quoted, according to which Medardus appears as a "prevented hero". First his relationship with Helene hinders the revenge on the Valois family and then his hatred of Helene also redirects Napoleon's planned assassination attempt on his lover. After the hated Emperor of the French survived, Medardus saw only one way out in prison. He directs his heroism against himself and goes under. Schnitzler contrasts the "blue-eyed petty bourgeois family" Klähr with the scheming, murderous ducal family Valois.

Social criticism

  • Actually, a "spineless people" is being exposed.
  • "Fainthearted" Viennese experience a "national catastrophe" almost without doing anything and behave similarly to the audience of a play - a "war drama".

construction

  • Sprengel recognizes the problematic link between the love story and the historical event as the theme of the play .
  • Béla Balázs puts her finger exactly on the sore spots when he asks: "What actually happened on Medardus' first night of love? Why does Princess Helene want to set the dogs on him? Does she love him? Or does she just use him as a tool? We know us not to the end. "
  • Schnitzler rediscovered the "theatricality of the body" - cavalry dash across the stage.

Bibliography

  • Perlmann names three further works (Francoise Derré 1968, Richard H. Allen 1970, Reinhard Urbach 1974).

filming

Wolf quotes, among other things, statements by Schnitzler on the sometimes careless handling of contemporary film companies with his original text.

Productions

In 1950 there was a performance at the Vienna Volkstheater under the direction of Paul Barnay and on the stage set by Gustav Manker with Hans Jaray (Medardus), Karl Skraup (Ancient Lord), Otto Woegerer (Eschenbacher), Hildegard Sochor (Anna), Erich Auer (François ), Martha Wallner (Agathe), Dagny Servaes (Klähr) January 12, 1950, Volkstheater

Radio plays

literature

source
  • Arthur Schnitzler: The young Medardus. Dramatic history in a prelude and five acts . P. 51 to 291 in the collected works of Arthur Schnitzler in two sections. Second division. The plays in five volumes. Fourth volume. Also contains " Countess Mizzi or The Family Day " and " The Wide Country ". S. Fischer Verlag Berlin. Without a year. 419 pages. Printed by the Bibliographical Institute in Leipzig
First edition
  • Arthur Schnitzler: The young Medardus. Dramatic history in a prelude and five acts. S. Fischer Berlin 1910. Cardboard tape with a full-page cover image, top gilt edge. 290 pages
First edition of the script in 1920
  • Arthur Schnitzler: Film work. Scripts, drafts, sketches. Edited by Achim Aurnhammer, Hans Peter Buohler, Philipp Gresser, Julia Ilgner, Carolin Maikler and Lea Marquart. Würzburg: Ergon, 2015. 647 pages, ISBN 978-3-95650-057-2
Secondary literature
  • Hartmut Scheible : Arthur Schnitzler. rowohlt's monographs. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg, February 1976 (December 1990 edition). 160 pages, ISBN 3-499-50235-6
  • Therese Nickl (Ed.), Heinrich Schnitzler (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Youth in Vienna. An autobiography. With an afterword by Friedrich Torberg . Fischer paperback. Frankfurt am Main 2006. 381 pages, ISBN 978-3-596-16852-1 (© Verlag Fritz Molden , Vienna 1968)
  • Michaela L. Perlmann: Arthur Schnitzler. Metzler Collection, Vol. 239. Stuttgart 1987. 195 pages, ISBN 3-476-10239-4
  • Wolfgang Sabler: Modern and Boulevard Theater. Comment on the effect and the dramatic work of Arthur Schnitzler . Pp. 89-101 in: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Publisher edition text + kritik, magazine for literature, issue 138/139, April 1998, 174 pages, ISBN 3-88377-577-0
  • Giuseppe Farese: Arthur Schnitzler. A life in Vienna. 1862 - 1931. Translated from the Italian by Karin Krieger . CH Beck Munich 1999. 360 pages, ISBN 3-406-45292-2 . Original: Arthur Schnitzler. Una vita a Vienna. 1862 - 1931. Mondadori Milan 1997
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-language literature 1900 - 1918. Munich 2004. 924 pages, ISBN 3-406-52178-9
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . S. 555, 2nd column, 15. Zvu Stuttgart 2004. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8
  • Claudia Wolf: Arthur Schnitzler and the film. Meaning. Perception. Relationship. Implementation. Experience. Dr. phil. Dissertation from August 2, 2006, Universitätsverlag Karlsruhe (TH) 2006. 198 pages, ISBN 978-3-86644-058-6
  • Jacques Le Rider : Arthur Schnitzler or The Vienna Belle Époque . Translated from the French by Christian Winterhalter. Passagen Verlag Vienna 2007. 242 pages, ISBN 978-3-85165-767-8
  • Hans Peter Buohler: Arthur Schnitzler's "Medardus Affairen". Part 1: Correspondence. In: Hofmannsthal-Jahrbuch 19 (2011), 79–215, ISBN 978-3-7930-9674-0 . Part 2: Materials. In: Hofmannsthal-Jahrbuch 21 (2013), 175–241.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nickl, H. Schnitzler, p. 370, entry from 1910
  2. ^ Sprengel, p. 477, 4th Zvu
  3. ^ Farese, p. 145, 9. Zvo: The premiere audience quotes Schnitzler thirty times on stage.
  4. ↑ Scheible, p. 141, entry from 1914
  5. ↑ Scheible, p. 97, 8th Zvu
  6. ↑ Farese, p. 167, 1. Zvo: The prize was endowed with 2000 crowns .
  7. ↑ Perlmann, p. 81, 6. Zvu: Alfred Kerr , quoted by Francoise Derré 1966
  8. ↑ Le Rider, p. 148, 13. Zvu
  9. ↑ Farese, p. 137, 5th Zvu: The author finished work on the work in June 1909
  10. ↑ Source, p. 271, 4th Zvu
  11. ↑ Le Rider, pp. 149/150
  12. ↑ Farese, p. 140, 10. Zvo
  13. ↑ Le Rider, p. 149, 3rd Zvu
  14. ↑ Le Rider, p. 150, 18. Zvu
  15. ↑ Le Rider, p. 151, 4th Zvu
  16. ↑ Seventeen years before the action time, Helene had to leave France at the age of three, together with her father Christophe Bernard, the Duke of Valois.
  17. ↑ Source, p. 214, 2nd Zvu
  18. ↑ Farese, p. 141, 6. Zvo
  19. ↑ Hofmannsthal's letter of November 7, 1909 to Schnitzler, quoted in Scheible, p. 98, 8. Zvo
  20. ↑ Georg Brandes wrote to Schnitzler on December 18, 1910. Quoted in Farese, p. 146 middle
  21. ↑ Le Rider, p. 152, 14. Zvo
  22. ↑ Perlmann, p. 82
  23. ↑ Perlmann, p. 82 below
  24. ↑ Perlmann, p. 83
  25. ↑ Claudio Magris, Turin 1963. Quoted in Le Rider, p. 149, 10. Zvu
  26. ↑ Le Rider, p. 153, 10th Zvu
  27. ^ Sprengel, p. 477, 22. Zvo
  28. ↑ Béla Balázs, quoted in Wolf, p. 69, 12. Zvu (see also: Béla Balázs' review of the film from October 9, 1923 in "Der Tag" ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stummfilm.at
  29. ^ Sabler, p. 98, 4th Zvo and 4th Zvu
  30. ↑ Perlmann, p. 88 middle
  31. ↑ Farese, p. 230, 4th Zvu
  32. ↑ Wolf, pp. 52-70