An angel comes to Babylon
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| Title: | An angel comes to Babylon |
| Genus: | comedy |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Friedrich Dürrenmatt |
| Publishing year: | 1953 |
| Premiere: | December 22, 1953 |
| Place of premiere: | Münchner Kammerspiele , Munich |
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An Angel Comes to Babylon is a play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt from 1953.
It was premiered on December 22nd, 1953 in the Münchner Kammerspiele . The play is a comedy in three acts . 1980 An angel comes to Babylon from Diogenes Verlag reissued and then appeared again in September 1998 as a new edition of Diogenes Verlag.
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According to Dürrenmatt's introductory stage direction, the background to this piece is “an immeasurable sky above everything. in the middle of which the Andromeda Nebula hovers .... “. From this heaven an angel descends to Babylon in the form of a beggar. He is supposed to bring a god-made girl, Kurrubi, the "grace of God" to the poorest of the people, the beggar Akki. But also King Nebuchadnezzar, who strives to perfect his kingdom and transform it into a welfare state, has a special interest in Akki, the last beggar in the state. According to the motto “The perfect state must not know any beggars!”, He wants to oblige him as a state-serving tax collector. For this purpose, Nebuchadnezzar disguises himself as a beggar and gets into a beggar's contest with Akki, which he is in no way equal to. Kurrubi falls in love with the helpless beggar Nebuchadnezzar, because she considers him the poorest among the people, because Akki turns out to be the better beggar and appears richer, because more competent, than the pretend beggar Anashamashaklaku alias Nebuchadnezzar.
Kurrubi would like to stay with the more helpless beggar (Nebuchadnezzar) and help him beg, but the king beats the girl because he feels ridiculed by heaven because of Kurrubi's profit. He can't stand that. He exchanges the girl for the ex-king Nimrod, whom Akki had begged during the competition and Akki moves under his bridge with Kurrubi.
The angel explores and explores the world with enthusiasm and praises its beauty in the further course of the piece. Since the divine creation is good and beautiful for him, he misses the human suffering on earth.
Akki turns out to be the freest person in Nebuchadnezzar's realm. For him, freedom is linked to the poverty of being a beggar. His wit helps him outwit even the executioner who is supposed to execute him if he does not bow to the king's will. He swaps dress and job with him.
The girl Kurrubi is now adored by all of Babylon. It is snatched from the beggar and taken to the king. He decides - advised by his courtiers - to make Kurrubi queen in order to forestall a popular uprising. Kurrubi doesn't want to know anything about that. She just wants to belong to the beggar she met on the banks of the Euphrates. She asks the king to become that beggar again. But the king cannot bring this about himself. There are tumultuous scenes. Finally the king decides on the girl's death and hands over the “grace of God” to the hangman, not knowing that he is handing it over to Akki, the beggar in disguise.
Only the beggar has shown himself worthy of God's grace. Kurrubi and Akki survive Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon and move out into the desert together.
Angry and betrayed of his love and the grace of heaven, Nebuchadnezzar declares war on heaven: “I want to drive humanity into a pen and build a tower in their midst, which passes through the clouds, measuring the infinity, right into the heart of my enemy. "