The girls from Viterbo

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Die Mädchen aus Viterbo is a radio play by Günter Eich that exists in two versions from 1953 and 1959. In the Holocaust play , a Jewish grandfather teaches his granddaughter a lesson on how to endure dying.

Production 1953

Original broadcast on March 10, 1953 by SWF , BR and RB . Director: Karl Peter Biltz .

Berlin-Wilmersdorf , Prinzregentenstrasse 96 during the Nazi era . On October 7, 1943, henchmen stormed the hiding place of the Jewish girl Gabriele in the apartment of the single Mrs. Winter. 16-year-old Gabriele has been hiding there for three years with her grandfather, old Oldenburg. Father and mother were "picked up" earlier.

Günter Eich tells from the last hours in the life of the two in the self-chosen prison. Sometimes Frau Winter had brought an old newspaper with her. In one of them, the grandfather had found the story of a girls' school class from Viterbo on an excursion to the Roman catacombs . According to the newspaper article, the thirteen girls and their teacher are said not to have found their way out of the underground labyrinth. Gabriele rewraps the story - initially to pass the time and against fear. The 16 year old schoolgirls are saved by the power of love. The 17-year-old carpentry assistant Emilio Fostini sets out from Viterbo to Rome and on the sixth day after the accident, he achieves what rescue teams from the fire brigade and police were unable to do after days of searching. Emilio penetrates to the girls and saves his secret love Luzia. The latter had caused the accident. At the head of the girls' class, she had purposely got lost at a branch in the aisles. She cites boredom as a motive.

The grandfather believes that the story was told incorrectly. Gabriele cannot think of a better version. Mrs. Winter brings the food and bad news. The Hirschfelds, friends with the Oldenburgs, were caught on the run to Switzerland and were sitting in a Berlin prison. It must be feared that one of the Hirschfelds will reveal Gabriele's hiding place during the interrogation. In this case, Ms. Winter must also expect punishment.

The grandfather wants to comfort the granddaughter. Faced with the danger, he asks Gabriele to tell the story again - this time not as a fairy tale. Gabriele thinks about it and says: One of the girls wants to kill Luzia with a stone. The others forgive her. The girls submit to their lot indifferently.

The grandfather specifies the end of the story: indifference, more precisely, wanting absolutely nothing from God , is a prerequisite for prayer. Praying to God, saying yes to the lack of alternatives.

Contributors: On March 10, 1953 Kurt Ebbinghaus spoke to old Oldenburg, Dagmar Altrichter to Gabriele, Freddy Klaus to Emilio, Cläre Ruegg to Frau Winter and Gudula Kownatzki to Luzia.

Production 1959

Original broadcast on June 8, 1959 by hr and SDR . Director: Fränze Roloff .

The second version is a careful revision in which only minor deviations from the first version are noticeable: The feeling that emerges in the first version that the others (the Hirschfelds or perhaps even the selfless Mrs. Winter) could be to blame for Gabriele's fate has been pushed back.

The girls from Viterbo no longer act almost uniformly. Some seek their salvation in action; would rather look for a saving outcome than die persistently.

A few more deviations: Oldenburg is called Goldschmidt. All Jews have the imposed surname Israel or Sarah. Luzia tries to lie before she confesses her guilt. Emilio Fostini was invented by Gabriele. The Hirschfelds are imprisoned in Moabit . A woman from Kallmorgen is supposed to save Gabriele and her grandfather at the last minute. This woman is not coming; turns out to be an invention.

About the production: On June 8, 1959, Eduard Wandrey spoke to old Goldschmidt, Maria-Magdalena Thiesing to Gabriele, Peter Fricke to Emilio, Liselotte Bettin to Frau Winter and Karin Fränkel to Luzia. Music: Siegfried Franz .

shape

An inversion is used in the two narrative strands Berlin and Rome. Discovery means death or rescue. Despite these contrasts, Günter Eich leads the two groups of figures to a unified insight: Both those locked in the room and in the catacomb take on the suffering and want to endure to the end.

The incidental suddenly becomes the main shocking thing. The meal brought by Mrs. Winter, taken by grandfather and Gabriele, suggests hope in the reader: everything will be fine. But nothing will be good. It's the hangman's meal . The regime's henchmen penetrate the two Jews. The listener's hope is dashed by another minor matter - the postcard. The Hirschfelds sent them from a German town near Switzerland. But the travelers were brought back to Berlin and it could be (but Günter Eich leaves us in the dark) that the prisoners have given up the hiding place at Prinzregentenstrasse 96. Gabriele's fairy tale about Emilio's rescue of the girls from Viterbo turns out to be just as terrible. The young man doesn't even exist. The girls were never seen again.

reception

  • Wagner quotes from the SWF press service from February 1954: Oldenburg and his granddaughter saw that they were deceiving themselves with the fairy tale of the rescue of the girls from Viterbo. From this knowledge both would find strength to face death. Wagner names reviews, among them “That fear is overcoming fear” (“Pfälzer Abendzeitung” from March 13, 1953), “Modern Mystery Games” (“ Neue Zeitung ” from March 18, 1953), “In the darkness the light becomes bright” ( " Evangelical Press Service / Church and Radio " of March 23, 1953), "In the maze of fear" (" Kölnische Rundschau " of February 13, 1954).
  • Jens thinks of Socrates' allegory of the cave . Those in the dark cave will be led to the truth. Taking on one's fate with an alert mind - Jens sees this as the motive.
  • “The main theme of the radio play” is the “horror of reality”.

Recent comments

  • Oppermann describes this work as a “questionable text”, accuses the author of omitting historical references and finds reasons for the success of the radio play: The two “exceptional states” in Berlin and Rome, ie the “confrontation with death”, allowed the listener to be unproblematic ID.
  • Barner and Alber comment on the general statement. In Barner's literary history it is written that turning to prayer at the end of the radio play is not Günter Eich's commitment to religion . Alber, on the other hand, writes that although the position is unique in Eich's oeuvre, it is “a professed agreement with God and the destiny determined by him ”.
  • Alber is reminded of Anne Frank and emphasizes the grandfather's devotion to fate. The old man is preparing the young girl for her terrible end.

literature

expenditure

Spends used

  • Günter Eich: The Girls from Viterbo (I) (1952) . P. 737–771 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 Girls from Viterbo (II) (1959) . P. 493-537 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
  • Walter Jens : Epilogue to Günter Eich's "The Girls from Viterbo". (1958) pp. 123–128 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
  • 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)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karst, Vol. 2, p. 806, 6th Zvu
  2. ^ HR press service May 1959, quoted in Wagner, p. 314, center
  3. ^ Wagner, p. 258, bottom left column
  4. ↑ Karst, Vol. 3, p. 766, 4. Zvo
  5. ^ Wagner, p. 313, right column center
  6. ^ Piontek, p. 119, 1. Zvo
  7. ↑ Jens, p. 127, 12. Zvo
  8. ^ SWF Pressedienst, quoted in Wagner, p. 259, left column, center
  9. ^ Wagner, p. 260, right column above
  10. ↑ Jens, p. 124, 5. Zvo
  11. ↑ Jens, p. 123, 3rd Zvu
  12. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 183, 14. Zvo
  13. ^ Oppermann, p. 86, 4th Zvu
  14. ↑ Oppermann, p. 85 above
  15. ↑ Oppermann, p. 85, middle
  16. ↑ Barner, p. 248, 9. Zvu
  17. ↑ Alber, p. 112, 8th Zvu
  18. ↑ Alber, p. 111, 4. Zvo
  19. ↑ Alber, p. 111, 4. Zvo