Heinrich or the pain of the imagination
Heinrich or the pain of imagination is a piece by Tankred Dorst that premiered on June 16, 1985 in the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus under the direction of Volker Hesse . WDR broadcast the TV recording on October 12, 1986.
action
Grünitz (Dorst means his place of birth Sonneberg ), Stettin and Berlin in the winter of 1943: The 16-year-old student Heinrich Merz wants to prove himself at the front. The senior citizen is selected for a four-week pre-military training on the sailing training ship " Admiral Trotha ".
Heinrich's mother suffers from being a widow and starts a flirtation. When she and her new family friend take Heinrich to the train station, the farewell scene changes into the fantastic and realistic: The lovers embrace eagerly and Heinrich's "pains of fantasy" begin.
After the train journey from Grünitz to Stettin, the Hitler Youth at the Reich Sports School was sobered up . The recruit should be tough, obedient, tough, reliable and full of community spirit. Heinrich does not prove himself. Right at the beginning of the course, he is caught during a night watch on board of the UvD with a book in his hand and sent home early.
On the way home, Heinrich stops in Berlin and lounges around the Szczecin train station for three days . Then he calls his uncle Hermann. This Dr. Dr. Plinke is the brother of Heinrich's mother Dorothea Merz and the black sheep of the family; He has made a fortune as an army supplier and lives in luxury despite bread rationing and the bombed imperial capital . The champagne flows; Hans Söhnker stops by. Uncle Hermann lives with Fraulein Zekel. Kalicke, the uncle's chauffeur, “chatted”. The mistress is probably half-Jewish . You are threatened with the labor camp.
The pretty blonde Lyuba, the uncle's maid, comes from the Ukraine . Her brother, a partisan, was shot by the Germans. Heinrich calls the Dr. Dr. Plink. Uncle Hermann supplies the infantry of the army with insoles “for the colossal marches, Moscow and back.” Plinke expands Heinrich's consciousness. When the student reports what appears to him to be a mistake, Plinke takes it ironically. It began to dawn on Heinrich that there was another way of facing the National Socialist regime than being loyal.
Heinrich cannot stay in Berlin forever. After all, he has to take the train home. Heinrich changes in Saalfeld . At home, the National Socialist Dr. Regus - that's Heinrich's tutor - bailing out. The viewer does not find out whether the educator is helping. Nothing else happens to the finale of the piece in Grünitz. But there is talk. Dorothea Merz reports news to the son. The old Former Heymann - a minor character from " Dorothea Merz " - hanged himself after being denounced by a Fraulein Weidner. Dorothea denounces her brother-in-law Erich - a protagonist from the above-mentioned novel - of cowardice. Uncle Erich stayed away from the funeral. The mother also knows something new from the capital. Uncle Hermann and his hospitable house are no more after a direct hit during a bombing. Heinrich thinks he died - but only his childlike consciousness is destroyed once and for all. At the end there is the exclamation of his girlfriend Hannah, only now is his life beginning.
imagination
In a stage instruction, Dorst initially announced a mixture of “reality” and “fantasy”. The latter arises - distributed in seven places across the piece - the head of the title character:
- Heinrich receives a revolver shot in the head from his schoolmate and continues to act cheerfully until the end of the play.
- Heinrich has to watch how the creep Dr. Regus bites off a couple of fingers from his mother.
- Heinrich meets the silent a few times. This is a group of poor and rich people who are ready to travel and are guarded by armed men. Miss Zekel joins this group, who turn out to be doomed Jews .
- At the train station in Berlin, Tilmann suddenly jumps out from behind Heinrich's suitcase and stabs his traveling brother in the eye with the pen.
- The shot body of Ljuba's brother moves in a bloody sack. The shot partisan is still alive, staggering forward and falling.
- Friedrich II asks Heinrich to march and sinks into the snow.
- There is dancing at Uncle Hermann's. Miss Zekel also dances - "bloody over and over, as if she had been slaughtered"
reception
- After Wolfgang Höbel , Dorst processed his family history. Bekes writes that Dorst used his own experiences from 1942. A stage photo of the Düsseldorf premiere can be found in Bekes, p. 54 below.
- Erken summarized in 1989 that Heinrich was beginning to "grow up painfully".
literature
Used edition
- Heinrich or the pain of the imagination. A piece on pp. 309–375 in Tankred Dorst. German pieces. Collaboration with Ursula Ehler (photo from 1985 at Bekes, p. 44). Work edition 1 (content: Dorothea Merz . Klara's mother . Heinrich or the pain of fantasy. The villa . Mosch . Auf dem Chimborazo ) Afterword: Günther Erken (pp. 601–612) Suhrkamp Verlag 1985 (1st edition), without ISBN , 614 pages.
Secondary literature
- Peter Bekes: Tankred Dorst. Pictures and documents. edition spangenberg, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-89409-059-6
- Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Text + criticism Issue 145: Tankred Dorst . Richard Boorberg Verlag, Munich, January 2000, ISBN 3-88377-626-2
- Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature . German Authors A-Z . Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 126, left column, 22nd Zvu