Festival in German rhymes
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Festival in German rhymes. In memory of the spirit of the wars of freedom of the years eighteen hundred and thirteen, fourteen and fifteen. Performed at the centenary in Breslau in 1913 |
| Genus: | Festival |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Gerhart Hauptmann |
| Premiere: | May 13, 1913 |
| Place of premiere: | Centennial Hall (Breslau) |
| people | |
|
|
Festival in German Rhymes is a festival by Gerhart Hauptmann that premiered on May 31, 1913 in the Jahrhunderthalle in Wroclaw . The occasion for the commissioned work was the centenary of the Wars of Liberation . After eleven of the planned 15 performances, the piece was canceled on June 18, 1913. The protector of the exhibition of the century, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1882–1951) , urged the Wroclaw magistrate to remove the festival from the program, which is why the play has largely been forgotten today.
content
The festival is not divided into acts, but is divided by stage directions. The specialty of the piece is the puppet show effect. Except for the director and his assistant Philistiades, the actors are puppets, but they are played by real people on stage. It is played on three stages.
The festival is introduced by the director and Philistiades, who bring the puppets onto the stage. Shortly afterwards, French revolutionaries storm the stage and drive out the director and Philistiades. Thereupon Pythia, the seer, steps on the stage and proclaims the fate of Europe until she too is insulted by the French. Next, a twelve-year-old Corsican boy is shown on the stage, playing with a top, whom the revolutionaries have chosen to be their leader (“Vive l'Empereur!”). This is followed by an excursus on a German carnival procession. A straw pompom of the emperor, a chained eagle, a group of intellectual and one of bird masks are part of the procession.
Frederick II (Prussia) finally freed the eagle, but without feeling responsible for the fate of the Germans. After the train leaves the stage, Napoleon and Talleyrand appear and plan Germany's unity. Napoleon disappears and Hegel, Jahn, Freiherr von Stein, Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Kleist, Fichte, Blücher and John Bull appear on the stage, promoting the idea of a unified and liberal Germany. After Napoleon is shown sitting on the third stage, throwing lightning, voices from the orchestra report on a battlefield scene with dying German soldiers. German mothers then storm the stage and express concern about the whereabouts of their sons. After one of the mothers is arrested, she transforms into the superhuman figure of Athene Germany. Athene Germany, dressed like Pallas Athene, becomes the founder of the German nation and the executor of the unity plans. After Philistiades announces Napoleon's failure, a cathedral appears on the third stage, into which Athene Germany and a peace procession of Germans move into. When all the curtains close, the director comes back on stage to end the play when Blücher also storms onto the stage. The director, however, referred him back to the doll's box, since Germany no longer needs his war-supportive attitude.
literature
- Sprengel, Peter : The staged nation. German Festival 1813-1913 , Tübingen 1991.
- Hauptmann, Gerhart: Festival in German rhymes. In memory of the spirit of the wars of freedom of the years eighteen hundred thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Performed at the centenary in Breslau 1913 , Berlin 1913. (published by S. Fischer Verlag )