Katharina knee
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| Title: | Katharina knee |
| Genus: | play |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Carl Zuckmayer |
| Premiere: | December 21, 1928 |
| Place of premiere: | Berlin |
| Place and time of the action: | Small Palatinate town in 1923 and 1924 |
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Katharina Knie is a folk play in four acts by Carl Zuckmayer . The poet himself called his work "a tightrope walker piece". It had its world premiere on December 21, 1928 in the Lessing Theater in Berlin .
action
The piece takes place in 1923 and 1924 in a small town in the Palatinate.
Once again the traveling circus Knie is guesting in the small town in the Palatinate. The company is doing badly because rampant inflation is giving it a hard time. Money is tight and what people spend on entertainment they take to the movies. Nevertheless, the group of artists sticks together. Last but not least, this is the great merit of the head of the troupe, Karl Knie, whom everyone only affectionately calls "Father Knie". When the bailiff shows up, he can't find anything attachable, because old Bibbo has hidden all the troupe's jewelry and Knie's pocket watch in her corset.
Karl Knie is also concerned about his daughter Katharina, his only child. He would love to see her finally get married and have children, but Katharina doesn't want to know anything about that yet.
The circus received an unexpected visitor on the very first evening of the guest performance: Police Commissioner Dillinger told Karl Knie that someone from his circus had stolen three sacks of oats from the large farmer Martin Rothacker. Finally Katharina confesses her guilt. She only wanted to get food for her favorite animal, the little donkey Maali. Now a world is collapsing for Karl Knie, because honesty has always been one of the highest virtues for him. He orders his daughter to bring the stolen goods back, although Rothacker has long since withdrawn the complaint and stated that it was a mistake and that he had given Katharina the oats.
Nevertheless, Katharina brings the oats back to the farmer at night, nicely dressed. She has been in love with him from before. Martin Rothacker, the stolen farmer, then comes back to the circus square, brings food for the donkey and suggests that Katharina stay with him on the farm for a year. She could learn agriculture and household economics from his mother, which will certainly be of great use to her later on. Katharina quickly becomes friends with this plan. Her father gives his blessing because he believes that his daughter will not be able to endure long on the estate and that he was brought up incorrectly.
A year later, the circus returns to town. Katharina Knie, informed by the bearer of the Berberitzche paper, comes to the square on the first evening and learns that her father has changed. He has not hired a young girl to replace Katharina, has aged a lot and now always rests until shortly before his appearance. Since seeing him again would upset him too much, he shouldn't see Katharina before his tightrope walk. But this plan fails. Knie reacts euphorically to the apparent return of the daughter, who has actually come to inform him that she wants to marry Rothacker.
Karl Knie decides to give a gala performance with sensational tricks, but stumbles on the rope. He abruptly breaks off his number and decides to move on the next morning, even though he has rented the place for a whole week.
Out of joy at the daughter's return, father Knie invites all the artists to a party. In doing so, however, he misses the fact that nobody else feels like celebrating. The word got around that Katharina got engaged to Rothacker and only came to say goodbye to the circus. When Katharina is finally alone with her father and tries to reveal the bitter truth to him, her father dies. He no longer realizes the intended marriage.
After the funeral, the funeral party gathers. The artists are deeply depressed because they believe that the end of the circus is within reach. Katharina explains to the old woman from Rothack that after what happened, she couldn't let the circus down. Her father's inheritance is an obligation for her. With the cry “Tense up!” She leads the circus into a new future. The artists begin to cheer and tackle with great joy.
filming
- In 1929, the year after the premiere, Katharina Knie was released as a feature film. Directed by Karl Grune , who had also written the script together with Franz Hoellering . The main roles saw Carmen Boni as Katharina, Eugen Klöpfer as her father, Adele Sandrock as Bibbo, Fritz Kampers as Ignaz Scheel, Viktor de Kowa as Lorenz Knie and Ernst Busch as Fritz Knie. Werner Schmidt-Boelcke composed the music especially for this film.
- In 1942, the feature film People who pass by was shot in Switzerland . The plot is based on Zuckmayer's drama, but the names of the main characters have been changed, perhaps out of consideration for the Knie National Circus. Directed by Max Haufler. It was his third and last feature film. The main roles were played by Adolf Manz as Ludwig Horn (Karl Knie), Marion Cherbuliez as Marina (Katharina). In other roles: Max Werner Lenz, Therese Giehse, Lukas Ammann, Ellen Widmann, Willy Frey, Rudolf Bernhard, Otto Lehmann and Sigfrit Steiner.
- In 1973 the Hessischer Rundfunk produced a television film about Zuckmayer's drama directed by Elmar Peters, which was broadcast for the first time on December 22nd of the same year.
musical
The composer Mischa Spoliansky and his lyricist Robert Gilbert used Zuckmayer's template to create a musical with the same title . This had its world premiere on January 20, 1957 at the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich.
Book edition
- Carl Zuckmayer: Katharina Knie , theater pieces 1927–1929, Fischer Taschenbuch 12705, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 978-3-596-12705-4 (= collected works in individual volumes , edited by Knut Beck and Maria Guttenbrunner-Zuckmayer).