Faith, love, hope
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| Title: | Faith, love, hope. A little dance of death in five pictures |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Ödön von Horváth , Lukas Kristl |
| Publishing year: | 1932 |
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Faith, Love, Hope is the ninth drama by the Austro-Hungarian writer Ödön von Horváth , which he wrote with the assistance of court reporter Lukas Kristl. It was published in 1932 and has the subtitle “A Little Dance of Death in Five Pictures”.
In 1933, as part of the National Socialist cultural policy , Heinz Hilpert was forced to cancel the announced production of “Faith, Love, Hope”. On November 13, 1936, the first performance of the play "Love, Duty and Hope", a version of "Faith, Love, Hope" took place. The title of the piece varies from the well-known biblical text of a Pauline letter : “But now faith, hope, love remain, these three; but love is the greatest among them. " ( 1 Cor 13:13 EU ; see also Theological Virtues )
The manuscript of the drama is now in the literary archive of the Austrian National Library and can be viewed there.
The book
contents
There is a recession and unemployment. Elisabeth, young, hopeful and determined to make her fortune, fights for her existence with all means possible. Because of old debts and a new sales representative job, for which she needs a paid traveling trade license, she tries to borrow money. She needs money to be able to work. And she needs work to be able to make money. So Elisabeth reports to the anatomical institute to sell her corpse while she was still alive. When that doesn't work, the institute's taxidermist is touched and lends her the necessary money. Shortly afterwards he learns that Elisabeth is using the money to pay for her previous conviction, which she received for acting without a traveling trade license. He charges her with fraud and she is sentenced to 14 days in prison. When a young policeman later falls in love with Elisabeth, she does not tell him that she is in prison. She should be his bride. But one day her past comes to light and the cop has to choose between her and his career. He is leaving her. Alone again, without work, without money, without a person, Elisabeth no longer finds any meaning in her life. She went into the water and was rescued, but the attempts at resuscitation were only short-lived. Abandoned by her faith, love and hope, she dies.
Quotes
"I can see that it has to be unjust
because people are not human -
but it can also be a little less unjust."
(Elisabeth in Faith, Love, Hope )
"The aim is to show how tragic events in
everyday life often dress in a funny way ... All
my pieces are tragedies ... they only get funny
because they're scary." (Ödön von Horváth)
I live, I don't know how long,
I die, I don't know when,
I'm going, I don't know where,
I am surprised that I'm so happy.
( Accountant , last page - original by Martinus von Biberach )
Book editions
- Ödön von Horváth: Faith, love, hope. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main (= Suhrkamp Taschenbücher. Volume 3338).
Audio book
- Ödön von Horváth: Faith, Love, Hope. Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel 2011, ISBN 978-3-85616-552-9
See also
- Paradise trilogy (film trilogy by Ulrich Seidl ) - the film titles are inspired by Horváth's "Faith, Love, Hope".
literature
- Janusz Golec: love, stupidity, sentimentality or about the concept of happiness in Ödön von Horváth's folk pieces: “Stories from the Vienna Woods”, “Casimir and Karoline” and “Faith, Love, Hope” . In: Ulrike Tanzer (ed.): The happy life - and the difficulty of portraying it. Concepts of happiness in Austrian literature . Contributions to the 14th Austrian-Polish Germanist Meeting, Salzburg 2000. Documentation Center for Newer Austria. Literature in the Literaturhaus, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-900467-61-7 , pp. 81–89.
- Klaus Kastberger : Ödön von Horváth (1901–1938). "Believe, Love, Hope" . In: Bernhard Fetz (Ed.): The literary idea. About the creation of texts . Zsolnay, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-552-04893-6 , ( Profile 1 = Jg. 1, H. 1), pp. 49-57.
- Jürgen Schröder : Ödön von Horváth's little dance of death “Faith, Love, Hope” . In: Werner Frick (Ed.): Clarifications. On the literary history of the modern age. Festschrift for Klaus-Detlef Müller on his 65th birthday . Niemeyer, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-484-10855-X , pp. 283-295.