Mr Birowski's guests

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The guests of Mr. Birowski is a radio play by Günter Eich , which was produced in 1952 and 1960 under the direction of Gustav Burmester . The author called the second version "My seven young friends". Three abandoned old welfare recipients are waiting to die in a home. He first came to the retired typesetter Birowski, a spirit drinker. Visits and visitors are probably only imaginary, but Günter Eich denounces “the isolation of these old people”.

Production 1952

First broadcast on October 28, 1952 by the NWDR .

fable

Ludwig Birowski's guests are the run-down poet Leonard, the hunchbacked singer Cäcilia, the foolish haulier Emil with his gelding Suleika, the kleptomaniac detergent agent Erdmuthe and the dishwasher Agnes. Birowski, the inmate of an old people's home outside the city, describes his visitors as happy young people - except for Agnes. The dishwasher was in prison for suffocating her child .

When Birowski asks his guests why they are visiting, Leonard knows the answer: The host has a pleasant quality. He doesn't ask about the worth of a visitor. Leonard had visited Birowski because he was supposed to be writing an article about social pensioners for a newspaper. It never comes to the creation. Leonard, says Birowski, also interviewed Paula and Theresa - these are the other two residents of the old people's home. The two old ladies vehemently deny the journalist's visit.

Paula, a former nurse and now useless in old age, fears that outside young people are constantly trying to kill her. Birowski steps in. He brings her some bread from town. When he bought it, Erdmuthe stole a box of chocolates behind the baker's wife. Birowski lets Erdmuthe make a fence . He is allowed to spend a round of confectionery in the retirement home. The thief picks up the rest of the candy there. Erdmuthe has arranged to meet Leonard in Birowski's room. Birowski is amazed.

In view of the approaching death, Birowski easily arrives at new experiences concerning the wonders of nature in early summer. On one of his night forays in this regard, he pulls Cäcilia out of the river. As luck would have it - Emil and Suleika and his team come by. The almost drowned singer is sent to Birowski's room. Cäcilia lost her job in a tango orchestra because of her hump .

Haulier Emil also transports coffins. When Mr. Birowski died, Emil approaches with Suleika, cart and empty coffin. Erdmuthe appears and asks the old ladies whether their visit is acceptable. Therese welcomes you.

shape

The piece is built in a simple way, but it has it all. The question, for example, remains in the balance: Was Birowski really visited by young people in his room in the old people's home? Therese and Paula would like to decide that. A look through the keyhole tells her: The old man is sitting alone at the table in front of the alcohol bottle and the shot glass. But where do the voices come from if not from the room?

Quote

  • Leonard justifies himself: "The true writer is the one who writes nothing."

more details

Siegfried Franz wrote the music for the NWDR production . Eduard Marks spoke to Mr Birowski, Günther Dockerill to Leonard, Hans Irle to Emil, Eva Pflug to Erdmuthe, Evelyn Schradiek to Cäcilia, Charlotte Joeres to Agnes, Martina Otto to Paula and Annemarie Marks to Therese.

Production 1960: "My seven young friends"

Original broadcast on November 9, 1960 by NDR and BR .

Some news compared to the first version

The seven young friends of Mr. Birowski are - from the first version - Leonard, Cäcilia, Erdmuthe and Agnes. But the freight forwarder is now called Karl (first version: Emil) and his gelding Marius (first version: Suleika). Yaroslav has joined the group as the seventh friend. The latter, an extra-telluric philologist, wrote the grammar and dictionary of a language that is said to be spoken on Venus . The 76-year-old Birowski wanted to learn English, but was persuaded by Yaroslav to take a Hesperidic course. The speakers of the Hesperidian - a kind of music of the future - would be asked at the earliest during the colonization of Venus. This language is apparently simply built. It consists of a single word: Mang. However, the emphasis on this vocabulary is tough. Yaroslav wants to become a civil servant. The post of overseer for the town prison bakery would soon become vacant. Leonard, the writer with a typist's inhibition, keeps himself afloat by washing house facades. With Cäcilia things are slowly improving. A cabaret is trying to get this lead singer in the Gnadenkapelle. Erdmuthe has specialized in the theft of things that she does not need and has hoarded considerable amounts of stolen goods. Your fence Leonard is exploring its storage in the basement of the old people's home. Agnes is a studied woman. The pharmacist has completed four semesters of drug science.

Therese mourns the lost youth. It's about the missed relationships with men. Together with Paula, she wants to get to the bottom of what is going on in Birowski's room. What kind of “dubious people” are there?

After the coffin with the deceased Birowski was taken away by Karl's wallach Marius, the seven young friends turn to the two old ladies. In the second version, not only Therese but also Paula welcomes the visitors.

Quote

  • "Nobody is unemployed during a war."

more details

The music was written by Johannes Aschenbrenner. Bruno Hübner spoke to Mr Birowski, Gerd Martienzen to Leonard, Siegfried Lowitz to Karl, Hannelore Schroth to Erdmuthe, Edda Seippel to Cäcilia, Renate Danz to Agnes, Annemarie Schradiek to Paula and Elisabeth Flickenschildt to Therese.

Some of the titles of the reviews of the play noted by Wagner: "Depressing image of old age" (" Westfälische Zeitung " of November 11, 1960), "Desperation as a message from the poet?" (" Evangelical Press Service / Church and Radio " of November 14, 1960 ), "Zerschlissene Gesellschaft" (" Funkkorrespondenz " of November 16, 1960), "Game of Death" ("Echo of Time", Recklinghausen of November 20, 1960), "An almost absurd radio play" ( Deutsche Zeitung of December 21 1960), “Gestalten der Einbildung” (“ Donaukurier ” from December 23, 1960) and “From the loneliness of life going out” (“ Sächsische Zeitung ” from June 27, 1995).

reception

  • Schwitzke gives the content of the second version.
  • In the poetic game, the silly facts would not matter at all. The visitors brought a message to Birowski, but would have forgotten it. In a "state of quiet, floating serenity", Birowski - a poor, suffering, peacemaker - awaits death in his room, a place "where a meager, frugal joy blossoms".
  • The play is only about waiting for death. Yaroslav's insane Mang language with its "escape from semantics" and Leonard's bizarre silence as a curious writer reflected the sensitivities of the poet Günter Eich.
  • Alber substantiates Günter Eich's pessimism in matters of faith with passages from the second version.
  • Regarding the bitter social satire of the second version: From the correspondence with Heinz Schwitzke, head of the radio play department of the NDR around 1960, it emerges that Günter Eich essentially did not respond to change requests. Schwitzke had asked for passages that were difficult to understand to be worked on: For example, the listener could not understand why Agnes had killed her child. Or Schwitzke cautiously doubts whether some things are psychologically sound - for example Jarolaw's Mang language. Günter Eich defends himself in his reply. He doesn't want to be clear.

literature

expenditure

Spends used

  • Günter Eich: The guests of Mr. Birowski (1952) . P. 709–736 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: My seven young friends (1960) . P. 665–697 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
  • Michael Oppermann: Inner and outer reality in Günter Eich's radio play. Diss. University of Hamburg 1989, Reinhard Fischer publishing house, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88927-070-0
  • 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
  • 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)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karst, Vol. 2, p. 806 and Vol. 3, p. 768
  2. ↑ Karst, Vol. 3, p. 768, entry p. 709
  3. ^ Günter Eich to Heinz Schwitzke, quoted in Wagner, p. 319, right column, 19. Zvo
  4. ↑ Karst, Vol. 2, p. 806, 13. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 2, p. 721, 13. Zvu
  6. ^ Wagner, p. 255, right column, 8th Zvu
  7. ↑ Karst, Vol. 3, p. 768
  8. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 3, p. 681, 7th Zvu
  9. ↑ Edition used, Vol. 3, p. 686, 2. Zvo
  10. ↑ Wagner, p. 317, left column, 15th Zvu
  11. ^ Wagner, p. 320, right column, 14. Zvo
  12. ↑ Schwitzke, pp. 194-195
  13. ^ Piontek, p. 117, 9. Zvo
  14. ↑ see NT ( Mt 5,3-9  LUT )
  15. ^ Piontek, p. 120, 12. Zvo
  16. ^ Oppermann, p. 146, 14. Zvo
  17. ↑ Oppermann, p. 149, 14th Zvu
  18. ↑ Alber, p. 129 below
  19. ↑ Schwitzke, quoted in Wagner, p. 318, left column
  20. ^ Wagner, p. 319, left column