The great anger of Philipp Hotz

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The great anger of Philipp Hotz is a play by the Swiss writer Max Frisch, subtitled as Schwank . It was premiered together with Biedermann and the arsonists on March 29, 1958 in the Schauspielhaus Zurich . Directed by Oskar Wältin , the Hotz was directed by Boy Gobert , the set was designed by Max Frisch himself. Although both one-act plays were well received at the premiere, their long-term effect was very different. While Biedermann and the Arsonists established themselves as a theatrical success and as a school read, The Great Wage of Philipp Hotz was seldom played and little studied. The comedy is now considered a subsidiary work of the author.

The outburst of anger of the intellectual Philipp Hotz is sparked by the refusal of his unfaithful wife to consent to the divorce. After he has locked her in a closet, Hotz has the apartment cut down by servants. He then leaves his wife to join the Foreign Legion , but returns to her at the end of the play because he was rejected there.

content

The credo of the writer Dr. phil. Philipp Hotz about marriage is that it can only exist as a connection between two people in freedom and openness, as a spiritual risk and is not tied to sexual loyalty. His wife Simone Dorothea, known as Dorli, can only laugh about that. She describes her husband as introverted , jealous, and desperate to impress her. A year ago she confessed to having an affair with his best friend Wilfrid. Hotz reciprocated with an affair with his wife Clarissa. Since then, both divorce has been firmly planned, with Hotz insisting on taking the guilt of adultery on himself in order to spare his wife.

However, since Dorli objected to the divorce at a court hearing that morning on the grounds that her husband wasn't serious anyway, Hotz has gone into a fit of anger. He packs a suitcase to join the Foreign Legion and has hired two service men to smash the apartment with the exception of Dorli's "Frauengut". He locked Dorli in the closet without further ado, which she, used to her husband's regular outbursts of anger, takes calmly. Silently and indifferently, she smokes in the closet and is soon freed by a servant without her husband's knowledge. Hotz is outraged that she does not trust his actions to be consistent and that she always relies on his love and forbearance. She couldn't do what she wanted to him just because she was the weaker one. Again and again he encourages himself: "Just don't lose your anger now!"

While Hotz is constantly interrupted by the servants who diligently inquire about instructions for their destruction, various other people appear. Hotz takes an old "Jumpfer" (dialect for maid ) for Aunt Bertha until she turns out to be a vacuum cleaner representative. Wilfrid, who has spent the last three years in Argentina and made a fortune, returns, greets his friend warmly and takes everything with humor, except that Hotz knows about his affair with Dorli. In the absence of her husband, he talks to Dorli, mainly about Hotz, the only topic of conversation that both of them never run out of. Wilfrid only gets really close to Dorli's revelation of her husband's affair with Clarissa. Now Wilfrid also starts to rage and thinks all women are whores.

After his departure, Clarissa appears at Dorli's and exposes the alleged affair between her and Hotz as a lie. Hotz, who fears his wife will never believe him again, leaves the apartment with a packed suitcase in the direction of the train station. To the end he hopes that Dorli or the French customs will stop him on the journey to Marseille , but nobody stands in the way of his threatened entry into the Foreign Legion. Alone in the apartment, Dorli has a vision of her husband as a legionnaire, which she finds completely unsuitable for him, and now weeps. At this moment Hotz is already returning. The Legion rejected him because of his nearsightedness. Dorli falls on his neck and he asks about the post, embarrassed.

Genre and structure

While he still referred to the first print of The Great Fury of Philipp Hotz as a sketch , Frisch classified the play as Schwank at its premiere . In the program he stated that a swank must be funny, but not necessarily stupid, ungracious or vulgar. The figures should be “conventional, fixed templates: you immediately know who you are looking at. The cuckold haha! And the audience agrees on their assessment. ”The coupling of the Schwank as a sequel to Biedermann and the Arsonists was often seen as a parody of the tradition of antiquity, in which a satyr play followed the tragedy .

The piece is a one-act play , there is no change of scene , a distinction is only made between scene and conference . In this, von Frisch also calls the main character's “I-Theater”, Hotz speaks directly to the audience. In contrast to the Brechtian alienation effect , however, Hotz always remains in his role in the conference. Sometimes the levels are mixed up, for example when Hotz reacts to a scene in the conference that, since he is now with the landlady, he does not even see it, but only imagines it. Elsewhere, Hotz briefly steps into the scene in the middle of a game, in which he is absent, to give his wife a light. According to Frisch's instructions, the room in which the action takes place should not be delimited by walls, but rather a raised platform, a “stage on the stage”, surrounded by emptiness so that the main actor can step naturally and conspicuously into and out of the scene could.

interpretation

The contradiction of the intellectual

Max Frisch (1955)

In the program booklet for the premiere, Frisch stated that he wanted to try out whether the intellectual who did not act according to his words was aware of his contradiction and in order to prove his actions to the world - in the play in the form of his wife - as a motivation for the play Do something completely foolish in full awareness that it is foolish, prove to be fickle. So behind the play - as by Karl Senn - the intention "of a relentless satire on the 'intellectual', in which Frisch also feels addressed", presumed that the Dr. phil. in Biedermann and the arsonists still reflect. Wolf R. Marchand also described the piece as "a grim game with intellectuals who suffer from the fact that they keep making big words but are unable to act, and who know that."

Manfred Jurgensen went beyond this interpretation. For him, the intellectual stood as a type for “imprisonment in one's self”. Hotz himself always stands in the way of his attempt to break out, a paradox that the vacillation turns into comedy. Ultimately, there is an incongruity of body and mind behind this comedy, which instead of a mere criticism of the intellectual becomes a criticism of creation in its entirety. Hotz tries to bridge the incompatibility of body and mind by means of his intellect, which is shown on stage by copying the two levels of action scene and conference. With his by no means spontaneous "great anger" he tries to break out of the frozen identities and images. In Hotz, Frisch created "a comical hero in the embodiment of a tragic conflict".

Anger as a role

Hellmuth Karasek described the basic theme of Max Frisch's work as the incompatibility of the imposed role and identity of a person. In The Great Rage of Philipp Hotz , this contradiction and the comedy that ensues does not arise from an imposed, but from the self-chosen role of the protagonist, which he is not really up to. In an effort to get serious, he chooses the role of anger for which his real anger is far too small. His outburst of anger, to which he has to constantly encourage himself, is inhibited by his civil upbringing and intellectual insight. Hotz has to order service men to smash his furniture because his own strength and anger are not enough for the set goal. His allegedly uncontrollable tantrum finds its limits in the civil code , for example in his instruction to spare his wife's property.

For Jürgen H. Petersen, too, the main character constantly undermines his own credibility and thus exposes the role he has assumed as a masquerade with which he only disguises his vulnerability and inferiority. Although he pretends to leave Dorli, he fears nothing more than separation from his wife, his own adultery has never taken place, his liberal views on marriage are constantly undermined by his jealousy. The real identity of the protagonist appears again and again under the role of the angry man, but it is an identity that he fears and rejects. This refusal to accept himself drives him to flee from his own identity and into the role of the angry man. After the failed escape attempt, Hotz returns to his apartment without anything having changed. According to Heinz Gockel , the comedy can start all over again.

Relation to the work

Manfred Jurgensen saw Hotz in a number of numerous other intellectual main characters from Frisch's work, from today's in The Great Wall of China to Dr. phil. in Biedermann and the arsonists . At the same time, in captivity in his own self, he is close to the title hero in Stiller , to Don Juan from Don Juan or The Love of Geometry and the Public Prosecutor in Count Öderland . Gerhard P. Knapp rated the great anger of Philipp Hotz as a withdrawal of the topic raised in Count Öderland : the connection of private eruption fantasies with social rebellion and rebellion. Every socially critical interpretation is excluded in the Schwank, the conflict "finally banished to the walls of the bourgeois living room or bedroom."

Jürgen H. Petersen referred to Frisch's first drama Santa Cruz : While Rittmeister and Vagant only dream of their outbursts there, Frisch let Hotz play through his attempted escape with all the consequences. For Walter Schmitz , Frisch had transformed Stiller's serious outburst into mundane, the powerlessness of the intellectual in The Great Wall of China into complete impotence. Hotz 'principle of inventing reality for himself, of making the stage his stage of consciousness, on the other hand, already points in advance to the invented stories in Mein Name sei Gantenbein . Ulrich Ramer referred in particular to the final sentence, Hotz's question about his post, which corresponds to Don Juan's closing words “meal”. In the end, both characters know that their attempt to break free has failed and resigned themselves to accept the impending married life.

History of origin

Max Frisch with Oskar Wältin at rehearsals in 1958 Max Frisch with Oskar Wältin at rehearsals in 1958
Max Frisch with Oskar Wältin at rehearsals in 1958

Since the early 1950s, Frisch had written various essays , radio plays and audio pictures for the radio . Even the great fury of Philipp Hotz was established in 1957 as a text for a radio play, which was however not realized. In the same year, Kurt Hirschfeld , the dramaturge of the Zürcher Schauspielhaus , asked Max Frisch for a new play four years after the last play Don Juan or Die Liebe zur Geometrie and suggested the adaptation of the radio play Herr Biedermann und die Brandstifter , which was written in 1953 and had been broadcast in several versions since then.

After Frisch had rewritten the Biedermann radio play into a play in October and November 1957, he sent the manuscript to Peter Suhrkamp in December and added, referring to The Great Wage of Philipp Hotz : "There would be a short fluctuation about the Biedermann , but me (and not only me) is not at all satisfied. That's what I'm working on at the moment. "In the program booklet for the premiere, Frisch justified the combination of the two one-act plays:" In order not to dismiss the audience with detonations [...] we still play a little sway. "The attempt to interlace the two pieces may have brought about the figure of Dr. phil. in Biedermann und die Brandstifter , which is neither present in the earlier radio play versions nor in the edited television play from 1967. He already points to the intellectual Hotz, who is also a Dr. phil., ahead.

On March 29, 1958, Biedermann and the Arsonists and The Great Fury of Philipp Hotz were premiered in the Schauspielhaus Zurich . The director was Oskar Wältin , and the same cast played in both plays. In the second play, the honest man Gustav Knuth became a servant, and the Eisenring Boy Gobert became Philipp Hotz. Other actors were Margot Trooger as Dorli, Elsbeth von Lüdinghausen as Clarissa and Ernst Schröder as Wilfrid. The set was designed by Max Frisch himself. For the German premiere of Biedermann and the Arsonists on September 28, 1958, Frisch had replaced Philipp Hotz's great rage with a sequel to the Biedermann play, which was later withdrawn.

reception

Even at the premiere, The Great Wage of Philipp Hotz was largely overshadowed by Biedermann and the arsonists . Elisabeth Brock-Sulzer described: “This sketch […] is lighter in weight than the Biedermann , but also essential.” It falls short of the first piece, but only “as far as it is allowed. It certainly acts as a swan song. Those who cannot adapt will be disappointed. ” Siegfried Melchinger, on the other hand, described:“ In the performance that I saw, the audience was more amused by the Hotz than by the honest man, who in turn received greater praise from the critics. ”For Friedrich Torberg remained Biedermann und die Brandstifter the “incomparably more important” piece, although Frisch also showed “the most amusing” human weaknesses in the second one-act play. The French literary critic Robert Kemp saw in the Hotz “something of a (unleashed) Courteline , from Ionesco ; maybe even from Labiche ”.

However, according to Gerhard P. Knapp, the lasting popular success of The Great Fury of Philipp Hotz remained modest, the main character of Hotz lacks any depth and, even in a comedy, "proved to be too weak for a modern audience." Typically Frisch's marriage story […] amusingly and skilfully written ”, but it has not proven itself and is hardly performed any more today. According to Walter Schmitz, The Great Fury of Philipp Hotz is “rightly considered a minor work” in the author's oeuvre. Annemarie Schnetzler-Suter saw in the Schwank “the only piece by Frisch that is completely meaningless in terms of content and form and has therefore rightly been forgotten today.” By contrast, Volker Hage described a “successful comedy”, its coupling with Biedermann and the arsonist, however, was only an "embarrassing solution". The performance of the Schwank as a single piece was mainly reserved for smaller theaters.

In 1960 Paul Verhoeven filmed The Great Fury of Philipp Hotz as a nearly one-hour television film for Süddeutscher Rundfunk . The actors were Robert Graf , Karin Schlemmer , Ina Peters and Harry Wüstenhagen . The Swiss composer Max Lang composed the opera of the same name based on the template, which was premiered in St. Gallen in 1960. In 1983 the original radio play text was implemented as a radio play for the first time. Under the direction of Charles Benoit, students of theater studies at the University of Bern staged the radio play Em Philipp Hotz sy Grossy Wuet in the Bernese dialect .

literature

Text output

  • Max Frisch: Philipp Hotz's great rage. A sketch . In: Hortulus Heft 2, year 8. Tschudy-Verlag, St. Gallen 1958, pp. 34–61. (First edition)
  • Max Frisch: Philipp Hotz's great rage. A sway . In: Collected works in chronological order. Fourth volume . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-06533-5 , pp. 417-453.

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Max Frisch: Follow-up remarks on Biedermann and Hotz . In: Collected works in chronological order. Fourth volume , p. 458.
  2. ↑ a b Hellmuth Karasek: Max Frisch , p. 77.
  3. ^ Heinz Gockel: Max Frisch. Drama and Dramaturgy , p. 52.
  4. ↑ Max Frisch: On the set of the Hotz . In: Collected works in chronological order. Fourth volume , p. 459.
  5. ↑ Quoted from Manfred Jurgensen: Max Frisch. The Dramas , p. 112.
  6. ↑ Wolf R. Marchand: Max Frisch . In: Benno von Wiese (Ed.): German poets of the present . Schmidt, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-503-00731-8 , p. 245.
  7. ↑ Cf. Manfred Jurgensen: Max Frisch. The Dramas , pp. 112–116.
  8. ↑ a b Jürgen H. Petersen: Max Frisch . Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-13173-4 , p. 101.
  9. ^ Heinz Gockel: Max Frisch. Drama and Dramaturgy , p. 53.
  10. ↑ Quoted from Manfred Jurgensen: Max Frisch. The Dramas , pp. 112, 115.
  11. ↑ a b Gerhard P. Knapp: pivot point “Öderland”: On the significance of a dramaturgical failure for the stage work of Frisch . In: Gerhard P. Knapp (Ed.): Max Frisch. Aspects of the stage work . Peter Lang, Bern 1979, ISBN 3-261-03071-2 , pp. 245-246.
  12. ^ Walter Schmitz : Max Frisch: Das Werk (1931-1961) . Peter Lang, Bern 1985, ISBN 3-261-05049-7 , pp. 314-315.
  13. ↑ Ulrich Ramer: Max Frisch. Role games . RG Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-89406-756-X , p. 103.
  14. ^ Hans Burkhard Schlichting: Building site for radio. Max Frisch - the architect as a radio play author . In: Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max fresh . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-518-39734-6 , p. 92.
  15. ^ Walter Schmitz: Biedermann's changes. From the “burlesque” to the “lesson without teaching” . In: Walter Schmitz (Ed.): Materials on Max Frisch “Biedermann and the arsonists” . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-518-37003-0 , p. 147.
  16. ^ Walter Schmitz: Biedermann's changes. From the “burlesque” to the “didactic piece without teaching” , p. 160.
  17. ↑ Walter Schmitz (Ed.): About Max Frisch II . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-518-10852-2 , p. 476.
  18. ↑ a b Volker Hage : Max Frisch , Rowohlt, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 3-499-50616-5 , p. 80.
  19. ^ Elisabeth Brock-Sulzer: Max Frisch: Biedermann and Hotz. A Swiss premiere . In: Walter Schmitz (Ed.): Materials on Max Frisch “Biedermann and the Brandstifter” , pp. 78–79.
  20. ^ Siegfried Melchinger : These were studies in the new style . In: Walter Schmitz (Ed.): Materials on Max Frisch "Biedermann and the Brandstifter" , p. 85.
  21. ^ Friedrich Torberg : Biedermann and the arsonists, in addition: The great anger of Philipp Hotz . In: Walter Schmitz (Ed.): Materials on Max Frisch "Biedermann and the Brandstifter" , p. 96.
  22. ^ Robert Kemp: The Zürcher Schauspielhaus presents "Biedermann" and "Hotz" . In: Walter Schmitz (Ed.): Materials on Max Frisch “Biedermann and the Brandstifter” , p. 105.
  23. ↑ Urs Bircher: With the exception of friendship: Max Frisch 1956–1991 . Limmat, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-85791-297-9 , pp. 45–46.
  24. ^ Walter Schmitz: Max Frisch: Das Werk (1931-1961) . Peter Lang, Bern 1985, ISBN 3-261-05049-7 , p. 314.
  25. ↑ Annemarie Schnetzler-Suter: Max Frisch. Dramaturgical questions . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1974, ISBN 3-261-03071-2 , p. 85.
  26. ↑ Klaus Pezold (Ed.): History of German-speaking Swiss literature in the 20th century . People and knowledge, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-06-102725-4 , p. 138.
  27. ↑ The great anger of Philipp Hotz in the Internet Movie Database (English).
  28. ↑ Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max fresh . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-518-39734-6 , p. 326.