The white savior

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The White Savior is a verse drama in eleven scenes by the German Nobel Prize Winner for Literature Gerhart Hauptmann , which was designed from 1908 and premiered on March 28, 1920 in Berlin's Großes Schauspielhaus under Max Reinhardt and Karlheinz Martin with Alexander Moissi as Montezuma and Emil Jannings as Cortez.

Anno 1520 in Mexico : Years before the establishment of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Spanish conqueror General Fernando Cortez marches against Tenochtitlan and has Montezuma , the Emperor of Mexico, killed on the Sad Night . "Trusting in the mystical promise of a redeemer of mankind, the white savior ," Montezuma had "considered the white-skinned Spaniards for too long to be messengers of a higher and new humanity".

Gerhart Hauptmann on a painting by Lovis Corinth from 1900

content

1

In the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Tenochtitlan : Prince Cacamatzin appears before his brother, the Emperor of Mexico, and asks in vain to put an end to all “devils who spit out the great water”.

2

In the palace of Montezuma in Tenochtitlan: Prince Guatemotzin, one of the emperor's sons and Prince Qualpopoca, storm Montezuma in vain: a “pack of white wolves” comes “and their leader is not a god.” Montezuma, Emperor of the Toltecs , unwaveringly awaits the “Sun Savior “, Who comes“ thundering in the light helmet ”.

3

In front of the tent of Cortez in the valley of Anahuac with a view of the pyramid of Cholula : Las Casas , the poet, condemns Captain Pedro de Alvarado's torture practice and the bloodbath of civilians. Chaplain Gomara finds nothing in it; if only true faith followed. Cortez promised Charles V that Montezuma would either become an obedient vassal or this ruler would be sent to Madrid “stuffed like a vulture” . Bernal Diaz points out that the Indians are bellicose. Jeronimo de Aguilar , “who knows the savage like no one else”, has to agree. Their warriors tied prisoners to a stone block - the sacrificial block of the god of war. The death row inmates can watch their hearts cut out of their chests. The young, beautiful Mexican Marina , a renegade of her people, interprets an encounter between Montezuma's emissary and Cortez. The ruler wanted to pay tribute in gold bars, but Cortez should turn back because food was scarce. Someone like Cortez, who has the world redeemer up his sleeve, does not turn back. Cortez dismisses the ambassadors and means to his followers: "... entertain them like kings and guard them like criminals!"

4th

Place in front of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Tenochtitlan: Prince Qualpopoca wants to make short work of it. All these white comers should be strapped to the sacrificial block of the god of war tomorrow, because he does not serve these gods. Prince Cacamatzin calls for united resistance against the foreign devils, because a Chichimeke does not surrender.

The Spaniards appear. Prince Cacamatzin speaks plainly from the start: breaches of peace will be punished with blood. Cortez appeases.

5

In the quarter of the Spaniards in Tenochtitlan: Pedro de Alvarado warns Cortez that the Spanish crowd live in a cage in which they could be starved. Montezuma comes to visit. Cortez, aware that he was the white savior that Montezuma awaited, was friendly to the pagan ruler. Montezuma keeps Cortez confidential; must realize that the white "son of the sun" is made of flesh and blood. He wants to know the secret of Cortez. Then the latter: "My yoke is gentle ...".

6th

Temple of the god of war Huitlipochtli : Even the high priest, in agreement with the princes Qualpopoca and Cacamatzin, doubts the arrival of real, true sun children. The sons of the ancestors from the land of Atzlan do not want to recognize these white “redeemers” who burn their enemies and butcher them with “crooked sickles”. Pedro de Alvarado enters the temple with his people and mocks the deity of war. Prince Qualpopoca not lazy, returns the insult. The Spaniards, however, sink to their knees in front of the Mexican mother of sorrows, Cihua-coatl, because of her Marian resemblance .

7th

In the palace of Montezuma in Tenochtitlan: Montezuma donates gold with full hands. Cortez has the treasures melt down. The people, descendants of the Totonaks , want to follow their ruler with more. Prince Qualpopoca has fled and Prince Cacamatzin has holed up in the capital of his principality. Montezuma gives Cortez one of his three virgin daughters. Cortez unveils the shame and wants to make her a "free Christian". Cortez demands a test of his loyalty from Montezuma. Prince Qualpopoca is said to die because he is said to have committed three temple murders by Spanish soldiers. Montezuma is given ten days' notice. When he shows too much obstinacy for Cortez's taste in carrying out the death sentence, the ruler is put on iron shackles at a wink from Gonzalo de Sandoval . Prince Guatemotzin, the son of the man in chains, is beside himself and calls the Spaniards "mangy beasts". The prince reports to the father that Prince Qualpopoca has just died at the stake. Montezuma asks the son to stay. Guatemotin remains.

8th

In the Spaniards' quarters: Cortez has to bring Don Narvaez, who has landed in Veracruz, to his senses and hands over command to Pedro de Alvarado. Velasquez de Leon recommends that the new commander be more closely guarded on Montezuma. Under the command of Velasquez de Leon, caciques are slaughtered.

Father Gomara tries in vain to convert the now unbound pagan ruler.

9

In the quarter of the Spaniards: Pedro de Alvarado had the believers murdered at a temple festival . Now the Spaniards are being violently attacked in return. Christoval de Guzman reports that the Spanish brigantines are on fire. Even Las Casas calls his friends, the Aztecs, dogs, because the food supplies have been magically removed. Montezuma still does not allow himself to be converted by Chaplain Gomara. The ruler now feels like a sacrificial animal to his gods . Montezuma finally realizes the promised Savior has proven himself to be white Satan. Cortez returns with three hundred soldiers and new brigantines. He put Don Narvaez in his place.

10

The Spaniards' quarters: Velasquez de Leon sends the captive Guatemotan prince. This should persuade his father. The ruler might be able to appease his aggressive people. In conversation with his father, the son calls the Spaniards "these savages" and glorifies the death by fire of the great and free prince Qualpopoca. Montezuma goes deep inside: Unforgivable - he was a blind leader. And again and again he is moved by the question: Who are they, these brilliant white ones?

Father and son are not cowards. Both want to die. Montezuma appoints Cuitlahuac as his successor. He rejects Cortez: "The torture bench is a boon to look at you." Spanish soldiers beat Montezuma in front of his people.

11

On the hill: Montezuma is shot at by his people with bows and slings. The ruler falls badly. The surgeon cannot help the dying person.

The new brigantines are again burned down. Cortez must withdraw, reluctantly leaving the rich booty behind.

More premieres

reception

  • 1920, Rilke took part in rehearsals for the premiere in Berlin.
  • 1920, Alfred Kerr : "His savage [Montezuma] is a Christian, his Christians are savages."
  • 1952, Mayer writes, "Montezuma, Emperor of Mexico, embodies the incomparably higher moral principle."
  • 1993, Seyppel feels the form "often embarrassingly amateurish".
  • 1995, Leppmann writes, "the horror that the events of 1914–1918 triggered in the idealistic German bourgeoisie trembles afterwards in ... The White Savior ."
  • 1998, Marx writes that Gerhart Hauptmann wanted to emphasize one thing the Christian and Toltec religions had in common - the hope of redemption . The most important source is Ernst Schultze's (Hamburg 1907) adaptation of “Die Eroberung von Mexico. Three personal reports from Ferdinand Cortez to Emperor Charles V ”. The chosen form, the monotony-producing trochaic four-pointers , was detrimental to the stage success of the piece.
  • 2012, Sprengel regrets: "As a historical-political drama, the play, essentially designed before 1914 , could hardly say anything to a generation that had gone through the World War and its aftermath."
  • 2017, Kiesel asks about the reason for the alienation that the subject of the play - like Indipohdi (1922) - encountered in the audience at the time and suspects that both works could be taken as an examination of the atrocities of the First World War.

literature

Book editions

First edition:
  • The white savior. Dramatic imagination. S. Fischer, Berlin 1920
Output used:
  • The white savior. Dramatic imagination. P. 7–179 in Gerhart Hauptmann: Selected dramas in four volumes. Vol. 4,543 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1952

Secondary literature

Web links

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Gerhart Hauptmann carelessly mixes the terms Aztecs and Toltecs (Sprengel, p. 471, 12. Zvu).
  2. ↑ Gerhart Hauptmann was referring to the Dominican Las Casas (Mayer, p. 73, 6. Zvo).
  3. ↑ Gerhart Hauptmann read his "Memories of Field Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo" (Mayer, p. 73, 4th Zvo).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sprengel, p. 527 below
  2. ↑ Mayer, p. 73, 2nd Zvu
  3. ^ Spanish cacamatzin
  4. ↑ Spanish Guatemotzin , see also 4-min video on YouTube
  5. ↑ eng. Qualpopoca
  6. ↑ engl. Cihuacoatl
  7. ↑ Hartmut Krug : Clash of Cultures: Greifswald premiere at nachtkritik.de
  8. ↑ Mayer, p. 73 middle
  9. ↑ Kerr, quoted in Marx, p. 189, 14. Zvu (from the Neue Rundschau vol. 31, p. 1086)
  10. ↑ Mayer, p. 73, 6. Zvu
  11. ↑ Seyppel, p. 56, 9. Zvo
  12. ↑ Leppmann, p. 310, 5. Zvo
  13. ↑ Marx, p. 190 above
  14. ^ The online text The Conquest of Mexico. Three personal reports from Ferdinand Cortez to Emperor Charles V in the Internet Archive
  15. ↑ Marx, p. 190 below
  16. ^ Sprengel, p. 527, 12. Zvu
  17. ↑ Kiesel, p. 1084
  18. ^ First edition S. Fischer, Berlin 1920
  19. ↑ Leppmann, p. 309, 17th Zvu