I and I

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IchundIch (also: Ich und Ich ) is a tragedy in six acts by Else Lasker-Schüler , which - presumably designed in 1940 - was written in Jerusalem in the winter of 1941 . The fragment from the author's estate was premiered on November 10, 1979 by Michael Gruner in Düsseldorf . Margarete Kupper published the play in book form one year later in the Kösel publishing house . Henri-Alexis Baatsch translated this last play by the author into French in 1990, Virginia Bezzola into Italian in 1992 and Jane Curtis into English in 2005.

Else Lasker-Schüler, expelled from Germany, organized in early 1941 in exile not only a ballad enhafte Höllenfahrt prominent Nazis , but celebrates a spectaculum mundi - the world as a theater "from heaven through the world to hell."

background

The last six years of her life - from spring 1939 to January 22, 1945 - the poet spent in exile in Palestine . The “despair over the absence of God” gives the author the strange idea of ​​identifying with evil: the devil Mephisto is responsible for driving out the devil . To this end, Else Lasker-Schüler goes from Goethe's “Two souls live, ah! in my chest ”and must necessarily take the side of her sinful soul.

content

overview

The action takes place in Jerusalem - in the last act the garden of an ophthalmologist and otherwise Hell; more precisely, the bottom of hell near the Jerusalem Tower of David . Over the first five acts, the more in-depth dialogue is mainly conducted by Mephisto and Dr. Faust disputed on the basis of Goethe .

In the first act, “the poet of tragedy” - easily imaginable as an Else Lasker student - gives the viewer a dramatis persona pointers to understand the eponymous me and me. It is - for the duration of the performance of the tragedy only - a cleavage of the poet's ego into “ virtues and sins ”. "The real game begins."

In the second act, von Schirach , Goebbels , Hess and Göring appear in the Hell's Palace. Goering and Hess make clear the Nazis' reason for visiting Hell; ask for petroleum for Germany. Mephisto responds to the “economic pact” and in return calls for a “town on the Eifel ”.

In the third act, the hard-of-hearing woman Marthe Schwerdtlein would love to hang out with Goebbels.

In the fourth act, Faust asks the devil - that is, Mephisto - a little unsure whether he could get the "troublemaker from Braunau ". The devil thinks he can do that. Nazis, Ley and Göring march into hell; sink with a " Heil Hitler! “In the lava .

Goering reappears in the fifth act and has a final controversy with Goebbels. As another “Nazi eerie” approaches, Faust wants to warn the German compatriots about the lava devouring the visitors, but is prevented from doing so by Mephisto. So Hitler appears accompanied by Ribbentrop , Himmler and Rosenberg . The Nazis are all hounded to hell; So, they die in hissing, boiling, smoking lava. After the work is done - all visitors have died - Mephisto, as a fatherly friend, interprets the wonder of his immortality to the amazed Doctor Faust via a shared self -

“... by unfolding again
Of me and me
I come to myself cleared and purified at Pentecost! "

The audience in the stalls, Mephisto said, should take this as an example.

Faust, who likes to moralize , finally adds a third interpretation of the work's title. Accordingly, he probably represents the virtues and his counterpart the sins: "Both of us - silently united in the body: I ​​and I."

Other things

Max Reinhardt appears as the director of the play. Aribert Wäscher and Karl Hannemann play leading roles. Marinus van der Lubbe strolls between the scenes, warbling insanely.

The Baal , the biblical kings Saul , David and Solomon appear on the stage, but carry no essential plot. At most Baal plays a secondary role when it comes to luring Hitler into the deadly lava.

Else Lasker-Schüler cannot be denied many years of theater practice. An assassin - Herschel Grynszpan and even a three-man comedian troupe - the Ritz Brothers .

Other premieres

reception

  • July 20, 1941: Erich Gottgetreu : "In mid-July 1941 she [Else Lasker-Schüler] read the practically impossible work for the first time in the Berger Club in Jerusalem to a group of friends she had personally invited."
  • 1958 Bonn: Karl Josef Höltgen in his dissertation on Else Lasker-Schüler's poetry: In IchundIch, the author wants to find out the riddle of her own self and interpret contemporary history.
  • February 1960: Hans Rudolf Hilty sees parallels with Frisch's Great Wall of China .
  • 1961: Herman Meyer goes into the quotation klitterung .
  • 1962: Otto Köhler in the Frankfurter Hefte : The two I's Mephisto and Faust stand for power and spirit .
  • 1969: Regarding the fragmentary character of the piece, Heinz Thiel remarks that the author would certainly have eliminated the inadequacies. Mephisto and Faust stand in the sense of a dualism for the two sides of the same coin.
  • 1980: Margarete Kupper: "The first reading of the play leaves the impression of a kaleidoscopic image made of heterogeneous elements." The "chaos", however, consists of "an artfully assembled basic pattern". Besides the dialogue pairing Faust-Mephisto, the pairing poet-scarecrow from the last act is also worth considering. Thiel interprets the scarecrow as a mortal shell that remains at the end of the play after the poet's death. The Mephisto-Goebbels couple are also part of it because of the horse's foot. Kupper thinks that Faust and Mephisto are not opponents in the sense of protagonist and antagonist . Adam Qadmon could also have been a model for the “split” man .
Recent comments
  • For Feßmann, Mephisto is the main character. If the event becomes grotesque, it is a stopgap solution for the author.
  • In Mephisto, Bauschinger effortlessly recognizes the author's mouthpiece and briefly characterizes the drawing of the Nazis, who - at odds - only agree on one thing: their anti-Semitism . “Faust, the sentimental 'poet's son' of the Germans” does not get off well.

literature

Text output

First edition

  • Else Lasker-Schüler: Ichundich. A theatrical tragedy. Edited and with an afterword by Margarete Kupper . 118 pages. Kösel, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-466-10061-5

Other issues

  • I and I. A theatrical tragedy in six acts, a prelude and an aftermath and the afterword by Margarete Kupper from 1980 (pp. 227–300 and pp. 301–343) in: Else Lasker-Schüler: Die Wupper and other dramas . dtv 10647, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-423-10647-6 (used edition)
  • Else Lasker-Schüler: I and I. Edited by Karl Jürgen Skrodzki and Kevin Vennemann . Jüdischer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2009. ISBN 978-3-633-54241-3

Secondary literature

  • Margarete Kupper: “The worldview of Else Lasker-Schülers in her poetic self-testimonies.” Diss. Würzburg 1963
  • Dieter Bänsch : Else Lasker-Schüler. To criticize an established image. Diss. University of Marburg 1969. 271 pages
  • Herman Meyer : The quote in storytelling. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-596-26883-4
  • Meike Feßmann : pawns. Else Lasker-Schüler's first-person figurations as a game with the author's role. A contribution to the poetology of the modern author. (Diss. FU Berlin 1991) M & P, Publishing House for Science and Research, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-476-45019-8 (Licensor: Metzler, Stuttgart 1992)
  • Sigrid Bauschinger : Else Lasker-Schüler. Biography. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch 3777, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006 (Licensor: Wallstein, Göttingen 2004), ISBN 3-518-45777-2

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ “God's poet” Else Lasker-Schüler is really not stingy with curiosities. So she exchanges her identity with the devil (Bänsch, p. 176, 13. Zvo).
  2. ↑ Bauschinger (p. 420): Höllental or Höllengrund is what Else Lasker-Schüler calls the Hinnomtal .
  3. ↑ Gretchen does not appear in person with Else Lasker-Schüler.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ anno 1980: Afterword by Margarete Kupper to the play in the edition used, p. 303, 11. Zvo and editorial note on the edition used, p. 350, 8. Zvu
  2. ^ French Henri-Alexis Baatsch
  3. ↑ Entry at viaf.org
  4. ↑ Entry at viaf.org
  5. ↑ Entry on WorldCat
  6. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 315 above in the edition used
  7. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 411, 3. Zvo
  8. ↑ Feßmann, p. 264, 6. Zvo and p. 268 middle
  9. ↑ Feßmann, p. 266 above
  10. ↑ Feßmann, p. 269, 6. Zvo
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 273, 9. Zvu
  12. ↑ Edition used, p. 288, 9. Zvu
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 289, 2nd Zvu
  14. ^ Westdeutsche Zeitung: Schauspiel Wuppertal carries out a major project for the 150th birthday of Else Lasker-Schüler. Retrieved December 14, 2018 .
  15. ^ Wuppertaler Bühnen und Sinfonieorchester GmbH: ICHUNDICH. Retrieved June 11, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 425, 9th Zvu
  17. ↑ Gottgetreu, quoted by Kupper in 1980, p. 304, 6. Zvo in the edition used
  18. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 311, middle in the edition used
  19. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 312, 9. Zvo in the edition used
  20. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 320 middle in the edition used
  21. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 312 below in the edition used
  22. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 310, 8th Zvu in the edition used
  23. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 313 above in the edition used
  24. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 314, 4th Zvo in the edition used
  25. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 325 below in the edition used
  26. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 323 middle in the edition used
  27. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 326 above in the edition used
  28. ↑ Kupper anno 1980, p. 335 above in the edition used
  29. ↑ Feßmann, pp. 261-272
  30. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 421 middle
  31. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 423 above