Jae Meat Chopper in Chicago

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Jae Fleischhacker in Chicago is a fragment of a drama by Bertolt Brecht , which was created in 1924–1929 in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann . The subject is wheat speculation on the commodity futures exchange in Chicago and its social impact. The work on the fragment is said to have been the starting point for the development of a new theater concept. On July 26, 1926, Elisabeth Hauptmann wrote in her diary about Brecht's considerations:

“This piece was supposed to show the rise of capitalism within a series of mankind's entry into the big cities . (...) Before he made very important discoveries in this direction, at least for him, he knew that the previous (large) form of drama was used for the representation of such modern processes, such as the distribution of world wheat, as well as for people's lives of our time and in general for all actions with consequences. 'These things', says B., 'are not dramatic in our sense (...) when you see that our world today no longer fits into the drama, then the drama no longer fits into the world.' In the course of these studies, Brecht developed his theory of ' epic drama '. "

Brecht first tries to find out what is happening on the wheat exchange. The first material is provided by the novel “The Pit” (1903) by the American Frank Norris . After an interruption for the similar project "Dan Drew", Brecht researched further information on the wheat exchange in early 1926. The subject of "wheat" gives the opportunity to show the consequences of speculation particularly drastically, since market manipulation can lead to famine. He decides to combine what has been written so far with the draft to create a hurricane piece that depicts the fate of a family in order to also capture the social consequences of the stock market actions. Elisabeth Hauptmann collects newspaper clippings, American technical terms and proper proper names, Brecht seeks contact with the stock market expert Dr. August Singer. Despite specific performance plans for the Piscator stage for the 1927/28 season , Brecht broke off work on the subject in 1929. Brecht has given us:

“For a particular play, I needed the Chicago wheat exchange as a background. I thought that I would be able to quickly acquire the necessary knowledge through a few surveys of specialists and practitioners. Things turned out differently. Nobody, neither a few well-known economic writers nor business people - I traveled from Berlin to Vienna to a broker who had worked on the Chicago Stock Exchange all his life - nobody could explain to me the processes on the wheat exchange sufficiently. I got the impression that these processes were utterly inexplicable, that is, could not be grasped by reason, and that again, that is, simply unreasonable. The way the world's grain was distributed was simply incomprehensible. From every point of view but that of a handful of speculators, this grain market was a bog. The planned drama was not written, instead I began to read Marx, and then, only now, did I read Marx. Only now did my own scattered practical experiences and impressions really come to life. "

Brecht states that he began intensive studies of the economic writings of Karl Marx because of the minced meat . Brecht takes up the subject of commodity futures and motifs from the meat chopping material again with the play Saint Joan of the slaughterhouses .

The descriptions of life in Chicago are mainly based on literary sources. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is one of them, as is Gustavus Myer's “The History of Great American Fortunes” (1907) and Bouck White's “The Book of Daniel Drew”. To illustrate what happened on the stock exchange, Elisabeth Hauptmann created an extensive excerpt from the novel "The Pit" by Frank Norris, which Brecht used very intensively.

The fragments depict various stock exchange strategies. Essentially, it is about attempting bullish speculation. Jae tries to buy together a monopoly on wheat so that he can be the only owner to dictate high prices. The influences of various factors on the market come into play. To show the social consequences of speculation, Brecht describes the move of the Mitchel family to Chicago and their downfall. Brecht establishes the relationship between the family and the speculator by declaring Fleischhacker the prodigal son of the family. Brecht also thought of designing the other son as the leader of a strike and thus as a counter figure. Fragments dramatically shape the decline of the family. The daughter, sold by the family as a prostitute, openly confesses to her "bad desires". Patrick Primavesi interprets this transition from impoverishment to desire both as an “anti-social moment” and as a revolutionary tendency, referring to Brecht's headline: “Kate Mitchel announces future turmoil to her family” (GBA p. 287).

The first performance of the piece took place on March 21, 1998 in the Berliner Ensemble under the direction of Thomas Heise , who created the stage version together with Ute Scharfenberg . The music was composed by Wolfram Krabiell and performed by the “Bolshevik Kurkapelle Schwarz-Rot”. Ulrich Gerhardt prepared an adaptation for Deutschlandfunk and Bayerischer Rundfunk , which was broadcast for the first time on February 21, 1998.

Text output

  • Bertolt Brecht: Jae Fleischhacker in Chicago, in: Large commented Berlin and Frankfurt edition, Volume 10.1, Pieces 10

literature

  • Reinhold Grimm: Bertolt Brecht's Chicago - a German myth? In: Paul-Michael Lützeler (ed.): Zeitgenossenschaft: Studies on German-language literature in the 20th century. Frankfurt am Main 1987, pp. 176-190
  • Jan Knopf: Brecht-Handbuch, Theater, Stuttgart (Metzler) 1986, unabridged special edition, ISBN 3-476-00587-9
  • Patrick Primavesi: Jae Fleischhacker in Chicago. In: Jan Knopf: Brecht-Handbuch Vol. 1 “Pieces”, Stuttgart (Metzler) 2001 (new edition), ISBN 3-476-01829-6 , p. 147ff.
  • Matthias Rothe: The Temporality of Critique. Bertolt Brecht's fragment Jay Fleischhacker in Chicago. In: Brecht Yearbook 40, pp. 29-53, Camden House 2016, ISBN 978-0-9851956-3-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ quoted from: GBA Vol. 10.2, p. 1072f.
  2. ↑ for the meaning of the word see Chicago Board of Trade # The Pit
  3. ↑ cf. Notes on Jae Fleischhacker, GBA Bd.10.2 A. 1072
  4. ↑ cf. Comments on Jae Fleischhacker, GBA Bd.10.2 A. 1073
  5. ^ Brecht, On Politics and Art, Suhrkamp 442, 1971/76. P. 15f.
  6. ↑ all volumes accessible online at archive.org
  7. ↑ Patrick Primavesi: Jae Fleischhacker in Chicago. P. 148
  8. ↑ Patrick Primavesi: Jae Fleischhacker in Chicago. P. 150
  9. ↑ Information from: Patrick Primavesi: Jae Fleischhacker in Chikago. P. 151f.