The new sufferings of young W.

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The new sorrows of young W. is a novel and play by Ulrich Plenzdorf and draws parallels between Goethe's Werther (from The Sorrows of Young Werther ), Salinger's Holden (from The Catcher in the Rye ), Robinson (from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe ) and Edgar Wibeau as a seventeen year old East German in the GDR .

Plenzdorf wrote an original version as a film scenario in 1968, which he submitted to DEFA , but which was rejected. Plenzdorf then wrote The New Sorrows of Young W. as a prose text and offered the manuscript to several publishers. In 1972, the prose text was published in the GDR literary magazine Sinn und Form . In 1973 the Hinstorff Verlag Plenzdorf offered a book publication with a larger number of pages than the Sinn und Form publication. So Plenzdorf was able to revise his prose text. In 1976 the play was filmed with Klaus Hoffmann and Léonie Thelen in the leading roles .

history

Plenzdorf wrote his socially critical stage play The New Sorrows of Young W. in the jargon of the GDR youth of the 1970s . It tells the story of a young person who wants to break out of his petty-bourgeois environment and who, while reading Goethe's work The Sorrows of Young Werther , repeatedly discovers similarities with his own life. The first performance of the play on May 18, 1972 in Halle (Saale) , directed by Horst Schönemann with Reinhard Straube in the title role, was a great success. In the years that followed, the young W.'s new suffering became a "cult piece" and was performed on many stages in the GDR, but also in the Federal Republic and other countries.

The prose version and the play were published in the following languages: 1972 (German), 1973 (Czech theater manuscript), 1973 (Italian, Swedish), 1974 (Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish), 1975 (French), 1976 (Estonian , Japanese, Norwegian, Hungarian), 1977 (Romanian, Slovak), 1978 (Serbo-Croatian), 1979 (Danish, English by Kenneth Wilcox), 1980 (Lithuanian), 1981 (Modern Greek by Toula Sieti, Athens), 1982 (Georgian, Slovenian ), 1984 (Spanish), 1986 (Czech), 1991 (Turkish by Nuran Özyer, Ankara).

Different versions

In 1968 a scenario was created in the form of an untitled manuscript that represents the original version. A modified version was published in 1972. This is a prose version with the title The new suffering of young W. , which was published in 1972 in the second issue of the GDR magazine Sinn und Form . In the same year, a play in two parts was premiered in Halle. This piece was also printed as a stage manuscript in 1972. One year later, in 1973, an expanded prose version without a genre was finally published. This is a book edition that was published in the GDR and the Federal Republic at the same time. One difference is that the original version contains a suicide attempt, but later versions talk about an accidental death. The ending has also been changed in the book version, some things have been expanded, others have been deleted.

Version from 1973

content

Edgar Wibeau was abandoned by his father when he was five years old. After Edgar's death at the age of 17, his father asked people who were close to his son in order to get to know him afterwards.

During the GDR era, Edgar grew up with his mother as a model student and model boy - perhaps not entirely voluntarily, because he did his training at a vocational school that was run by his mother. After an argument with his teacher Flemming, he does what he wanted to do for a long time - he disappears with his friend Willi from his hometown, the fictional small town of Mittenberg, and goes to Berlin . However, Willi soon moved back to Mittenberg. Edgar remains alone in Berlin, where he finds accommodation in an abandoned gazebo next to a kindergarten in Berlin-Lichtenberg . 20-year-old Charlie works in this kindergarten, with whom he soon falls in love. Dieter, her fiancé and later husband, and Charlie himself give Edgar a lot to think about. The only one Edgar keeps in contact with is his childhood friend Willi. He regularly sends him tapes with quotations from Goethe's Werther that describe his own situation well. "Old Werther" is also later called Edgar's "Werther pistol", which he likes to use when situations become uncomfortable or when he is no longer entirely sure of what he is doing. After the young rebel had not been accepted at an art college, but never completely wrote himself off as a misunderstood genius, he took up a job as a painter. In order to prove something to Addi and Zaremba, his work colleagues, he tries to develop a “mistless paint sprayer”, which Addi himself has only just failed to achieve. Edgar is electrocuted the first time he tries to put the self-made machine into operation.

Narrative structure

At the beginning of the plot, the main character, the seventeen-year-old apprentice Edgar Wibeau, is already dead. The plot begins shortly after the obituaries appear with Edgar's father visiting the apartment of his mother, who Edgar raised alone. In the further course the father tries to find out details about Edgar's life in order to “get to know” his son afterwards. To this end, he also speaks with Willi, Charlie and Edgar's master Addi. Edgar from the afterlife describes, corrects and comments on the topics and questions raised in the conversations in lengthy inner monologues . Edgar expresses his inner constitution with the help of quotations from Goethe's “Werther”, which he had sent to Willi, spoken on tape.

The quotes from Goethe's “Werther”, which Edgar Wibeau calls the “Werther pistol”, have different functions. On the one hand, they express Edgar's passion, which he could not express through his everyday language, on the other hand, they give him distance from society and at the same time provoke it. Despite the outdated language of past literary epochs, the quotations are mentally topical.

Style and language

Within the work the reader encounters a mixture of different linguistic means. Edgar uses a fictional youth language that was constructed and developed by Plenzdorf. Examples of this are the phrase “and so” and set pieces such as “people”. Furthermore, the work contains a literary language that comes to the fore, for example, when Werther quotations from Goethe are inserted or individual phrases from Salinger's work The Catcher in the Rye flow into the text. These two languages ​​are also supplemented by a colloquial and fecal language. While the term "rumkrauch" is an example of the colloquial language that occurs in the dialogues of the father and dieter, terms and expressions such as "mess" and "you shit!" Belong to the fecal language. In doing so, Edgar wants to address and win over young readers of his age group. In summary, one can say that the work contains a multitude of different linguistic means that are in contrast to one another.

characters

  • Edgar Wibeau
Edgar Wibeau is 17 years old and comes from Mittenberg. There is never any mention of siblings; his father left the family early. At the vocational school, which of all people is run by his mother, he is considered a model student who never takes part in pranks, even if the ideas come from him. But at some point his collar bursts and he fled to Berlin, where he lived completely wild for a long time. Although he sees himself as an experienced heartbreaker, for the first time he feels romantic love for the three-year-old kindergarten teacher Charlie. With her and her fiancé Dieter, a triangular relationship similar to that discussed by Goethe in “Werther's Sorrows” develops.
Edgar is a fan of western popular culture such as "real jeans", jazz (especially by Satchmo ), US films, and is also pretty well versed in the alternative East Berlin music scene; However, he certainly shares the socialist ideals, is upset about the Vietnam War, admires the old Red Front fighter Zaremba and, above all, is not a “bum”, so he is ready to work for his livelihood. However, he rejects the real socialist philistinism embodied by his mother, his trainer or his rival Dieter. It is difficult to characterize Edgar objectively, as he is described very differently by the people around him ( Rashomon effect). While Willi describes him as a good painter, creative, “boss in all subjects” and a consistent genius, others like Addi and Charlie tend to think negatively about him and describe him as “nailed-up idiots”, “unskilled” and show-offs. From all these different aspects it can be seen that Edgar is both a selfish and eccentric person who shows the person facing him exactly what he thinks of her.
  • Charlie Schmidt
Charlie is a 20 year old kindergarten teacher. She feels drawn to Edgar, at least in some ways, but is not thinking of sacrificing her engagement to Dieter for him. In particular, she completely rejects his living conditions, and he is simply too young for her. Charlie is pretty, intelligent and friendly, but doesn't let Dieter or the charming Edgar wrap him up.
  • Dieter
Dieter is - at least in comparison to Edgar - a " philistine " loyal to the line . He has just completed his service in the army in an exemplary manner and now wants to study German with the scholarship he has acquired. Edgar estimates him at 25. Dieter and Charlie have known each other “from childhood” and later they marry as planned.
  • Mr. Wibeau
Edgar's father is 36 years old and lives with his girlfriend in a high-rise apartment in Berlin - as a structural engineer and not, as Edgar assumed, as a painter. He left his wife and child and is only interested in his son's life after his son's death.
  • Else Wibeau
Mother Wibeau - As a young, single mother, the loyal comrade achieved an impressive career as headmistress. However, she never cared too much for her son, always demanded a lot from him and was probably very offended after Edgar left Mittenberg. Nevertheless, she loves Edgar and supports him as best she can. After he ran away, it seems like she doesn't care much about him anymore. Nevertheless, she forces Willi to keep Edgar in Berlin.
  • Addi Berliner
He is the brigade leader of a painters brigade, a little quick-tempered but still a good person. Edgar describes him as a "stayer", probably Edgar's greatest distinction. Even if Addi often argues with him, they get along very well. After Edgar's expulsion, Addi feels guilty, which he keeps even after Edgar's death.
  • Zaremba
Edgar thinks a lot of Zaremba, especially because he - despite his age - is still so fit and active. He brings Zaremba close to his idols due to the fact that the over seventy-year-old is still working, although he could long have retired. The house painter is very diplomatic and often settles disputes between Addi and the young Wibeau. As a staunch socialist, Zaremba represents the ideal type of collective member who, for social work success, also disregards authoritarian ways of dealing with other collective members, including the outsider Wibeau. Was in the Spanish Civil War, quarrels with the union and the party.
  • Willi Lindner
Willi is Edgar's old childhood friend and the only person he is still in contact with after his escape. Willi admires Edgar. He runs off with him to Berlin, but quickly returns home ruefully - which is fine with Edgar. Later, Edgar's cryptic tape messages become uncanny, and he passes them on to Else. You don't learn much else about Willi himself.

The triangular relationships in Werther and in the "New Sufferings"

The triangular relationships in both novels are a further point of reference to the “model novel” The Sorrows of Young Werther von Goethe.

One can assume that the characters Edgar - Werther, Charlie - Lotte and Dieter - Albert relate to each other and are based on the "original characters" in Goethe's novel. It starts with Edgar's desire for Charlie: “Besides, I wanted her from the start. Getting around anyway, but also having. ”(P. 49),“ If someone thinks that it was particularly painful for me or something with the fiancé, he is wrong, folks. Engaged is far from married. In any case, Charlie understood what was being played. That's it! She started to take me seriously. I already knew that. Fiancee always show up when things get serious ”(p. 55). This desire that Edgar has for Charlie is very similar to that between Werther and Lotte. Both love a woman who is engaged or promised. And both have a certain hope that it might still work.

The connection between their husbands and Edgar and Werther is similar. Both women try to force their husbands between themselves and Edgar or Werther in some way. Charlie says, “I brought him and Edgar together. Dieter, my husband, was the last head of the office. (...) I thought he might have a little influence on Edgar. ”(P. 73). Edgar and Werther also have contradicting feelings towards the other men, which, however, are even more clearly negative in the New Sorrows. Nevertheless, they respect the fiancée, Werther even likes him. Inwardly, however, he probably thinks the same thing that Edgar says: “I want to say about Dieter: He was probably quite passable. After all, not everyone could be an idiot like me. And he was probably just the right man for Charlie. But there was no point in thinking about it. I can only advise you guys not to think about it in a situation like this. When you go up against an opponent, you can't think about what kind of a likable boy he is and such. That leads to nothing ”(p. 77).

Nevertheless, as is well known, both women later “land” with their original fiancé, even if they both doubt in between and (probably) both hope that the problem will be solved in the following way: “Probably at that moment your greatest dream came true, that I and Dieter became good friends ”(p. 119). Because then a barrier would presumably also be created in Edgar and Werther, which would prevent them from going further. It should be noted that these figure constellations are very similar and finally the question can be asked: Are the new ailments perhaps the old ones? (The page numbers come from the Suhrkamp edition of the work; see references).

References to the social situation

Appeared at the time in the GDR, when writers were allowed to enjoy new freedom and exercise social criticism, Plenzdorf lets his protagonist Edgar Wibeau rebel in his novel. Edgar's protest is directed against the social conditions that make it difficult for young people to find and develop themselves, but not against the foundations of socialist society itself.

The main ideas of this GDR society are omnipresent in the novel. While different worldviews find their place in the Federal Republic of Germany, there is no room for other worldviews in the GDR besides the communist ideology. The SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) sees a major role in youth policy and uses the FDJ (Free German Youth) for ideological influence and political mobilization. In the context of raising a socialist personality, spontaneity and creativity are undesirable. Edgar Wibeau criticizes this lack of development opportunities in the novel and repeatedly defies expectations, be it through his appearance or after his misconduct at the beginning of the novel through his flight to Berlin, which makes it clear that his self-confidence does not match the demands of a society which puts the socialist progress of society before the demands of the individual to realize themselves.

Difference from the original version

In retrospect, there are significant differences between the novel version from 1973 and the original version from 1968, which looks like an unfinished film script, in which many scenes have yet to be developed through dialogues and stage directions. Edgar dreams of being a painter and bohemian like his father, and the object of his desire is still called Charlotte. He's not yet keeping his diary on a cassette recorder , but on a compact tape recorder . After Edgar lost it to Dieter, in this version too he relies on his ingenious, hydraulic paint sprayer. He triggers its test run symbolically by pressing a typewriter key, but at the same time he wants to commit suicide twice, by shooting and hanging. Here, too, the plan goes completely wrong, the machine explodes, but the suicide attempt also fails. His colleagues who hurried over recognized the ingenious design, and the machine was still a complete success. Edgar returns to his hometown as a hero, and even his friend Willi seems to be starting a career as an artist.

filming

The screenplay was written by Ulrich Plenzdorf , the director had Eberhard Itzenplitz . For the role as Edgar Wibeau , Klaus Hoffmann received the Bambi and Golden Camera awards . Other actors were Léonie Thelen (as Charlie ), Hans-Werner Bussinger ( Mr. Wibeau ), Henning Gissel ( Addi ), Barbara Klein ( Mrs. Wibeau ), Bruno Dallansky , Peter Thom ( painter ), Bernd Köhler, Wolfgang Condrus ( painter ), Klaus Münster , Rolf Möbius , Klaus Jepsen , Gerda Blisse, Vera Ducci, Jörg Nagel.

The West German television film was broadcast by ARD on Tuesday, April 20, 1976 at 9 p.m. and distributed as a video cassette by Matthias-Film (1990) and the Federal Agency for Political Education (1995).

In the same year, 1976, the East German DEFA production of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther with Katharina Thalbach as Lotte was completed.

expenditure

  • The new sorrows of the young W. - piece in 2 parts. Unsaleable [stage] manuscript. Henschelverlag, Stage Sales Department, Berlin 1972, 78 pages
  • The new sorrows of the young W. 2nd edition. Hinstorff Verlag , Rostock 1973, 108 pages
  • The new sorrows of the young W. 1st edition 1976. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main, 148 pages

Secondary literature

  • Commentary by Jürgen Krätzer in the edition Die neue Leiden des Junge W., text and commentary . Suhrkamp BasisBibiliothek, Frankfurt am Main 2004 ISBN 3-518-18839-9
  • Rüdiger Bernhardt: "The new sorrows of young W." Text analysis and interpretation. Series King's Explanations and Materials 304, C. Bange Verlag , Hollfeld 2012 ISBN 978-3-8044-1977-3
  • Peter J. Brenner: Plenzdorf's "New Sorrows of Young W." Series: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch materials, Frankfurt am Main 1982; contains the different text versions

Varia

Ulrich Plenzdorf immortalized the jazz singer Uschi Brüning (* 1947) literarily in The New Sorrows of Young W.

“[...] Uschi Brüning! When the woman started, I always broke. I think she's no worse than Ella Fitzgerald or any. She could have had everything from me if she stood in front with her large glasses and slowly joined the troop. [...] How she communicated with the boss without a look, that could only be a migration of souls. And how she thanked her with a look when he let her in! I could have cried every time. He held her back until she could hardly take it any longer, and then he let her get in, and she thanked her with a smile, and I almost never got back. "

- Ulrich Plenzdorf (1973)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Rüdiger Bernhardt: Text analysis and interpretation of "The new suffering of young W." Series King's Explanations and Materials 304, Bange Verlag, Hollfeld 1st edition 2012 ISBN 978-3-8044-1977-3
  2. ↑ PDF TV program information for the week after Easter in the magazine Der Spiegel No. 17 from 1976; accessed on November 18, 2018
  3. ↑ imdb.com/title/tt0073445 Filming: Entry in the Internet Movie Database ; English, accessed November 17, 2018
  4. ↑ voebb.de Videocassette: Catalog in the Association of Public Libraries in Berlin ; accessed on November 17, 2018
  5. ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/pop/jazz-alles-fuehlbare-in-einem-schrei/1325598.html - accessed on August 26, 2018