Petty bourgeoisie (Gorki)

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Petit bourgeoisie ( Russian Мещане , Meschtschane), also Die Kleinbürger , is a drama by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky , written in 1901. Snanije brought the book edition in March 1902. The play was premiered on April 7, 1902 on the occasion of a guest performance by the Moscow Art Theater in Petersburg .

The translation into German by August Scholz was also published by Cassirer in Berlin in 1902. A performance in the Lobe Theater in Breslau followed on September 1 of the same year and on September 14 at the Free Volksbühne . At the beginning of the 1902/1903 winter season, the Lessing Theater Berlin presented its petty bourgeoisie with Eduard von Winterstein as the revolutionary Nil and Clara Kollendt as his bride Polja. In 1922, Piscator included the play in the program of the Central Theater Berlin . In 1957, Wolfgang Heinz and Karl Paryla directed the petty bourgeoisie at the Deutsches Theater, and in 1967 the version by Horst Schönemann at the Landestheater Halle received attention.

1957: Wolfgang Heinz as church singer Birkhahn in the Berlin performance

overview

The 58-year-old wealthy petty bourgeoisie Wassilij Wassiljew Bessemjonow, master of the painters' guild in an anonymous provincial town, has no joy with his three children. The 26-year-old student Pyotr was expelled from the Moscow Law Faculty for good reason. Pyotr admits: "The devil drove me to take part in the stupid riots". And the 28-year-old daughter Tatjana, a teacher, never got a husband. When the 27-year-old foster son Nil - a train driver, and the 21-year-old Polja - a distant relative of the Bessemyonov family - want to get married, the family falls apart. The 50-year-old bird catcher Pertschichin - that is Polja's father - expresses what the others had assumed up to now: "... I had always thought that the Nile would marry Tatiana." After the disappointment with Nile, Tatiana tries to commit suicide. The latter failed. After all, Tatjana is no match for her authoritarian father and is desperate. Tatiana confesses to the church singer Birkhahn (Russian: Тетерев, Teterew) - actually Terentij Chrissanfowitsch Bogoslowskij, boarder at the Bessemjonow and philosopher as well as buffoon in the play: “I had hoped he [Nil] ... would find the word. I've waited a long time, dumb ... And this life, the quarrel, the pettiness, meanness ... the narrowness ... has meanwhile crushed me ... I lack the strength to live ... even my despair is without strength. Fear grabs me. ”Her brother Pyotr is completely different: at the end of the play, old Bessemjonow has to realize that Pyotr will not ask to resume law studies. The son leaves the family with the 24-year-old widow Jelena Nikolajewna Kriwzowa - who is a lodger with the Bessemjonows - and wants - like Nil - to stand on his own two feet. Black cock, who calls himself a drunkard and sees through all heroes as an omnipresent fool, thinks that the apple will not fall far from the tree. Pyotr will return after the escape and sit in the nest that has been made.

title

In the Tatiana quote above, Gorky already outlined petty bourgeoisie. That is not enough. Black cock scolds not only Pyotr, but also his father, old Bessemyonov, a petty bourgeois. Almost a Gorkian definition of the petty bourgeois, Birkhahn says in the face of old Bessemjonow: “... you are moderately clever and moderately stupid; moderately good and moderately evil; decent and sleazy with moderation, cowardly and brave ... you are the model of a petty bourgeois! You embody perfect platitude ... the power that defeats even heroes, who lives, lives and triumphs ... Come on, let's have another ... dear mole! ”Old Bessemyonov's view of current events fits into this characteristic his environment. For example, he assesses Tatyana's attempted suicide with his wife Akulina Ivanovna with the statement: “It remains a shame for both of us!” Or the old man detests the scrambling factory workers: “I guess they called it a day, went to the pub, had drunk their wages, and now they are roaring. "

Pyotr confirms to Jelena that he is in the "social ranking ... petty bourgeois". Birkhahn: "[Pyotr] is just as ... cowardly and stupid [as his father] ... He will also be greedy in his day, self-righteous and tough."

content

Why does old Bessemyonov become increasingly intolerant of his fellow men from act to act of this play? Why does he finally chase everyone out of his house so that in the end he sits alone in it with a blindly obedient wife and a hopeless daughter? In the first act he says to Tatjana about this generation problem: “You don't like our order ...” In contrast to the younger generation, the old man goes to church with his wife and reads the Psalter at home . But actually it's not about that sort of thing. The bird catcher Perchikhin pronounces one of the triggers for all the quarrels in the household of the Bessemjonov: Because Perchikhin's daughter Polja “took the suitor away from Tatiana”.

At first, old Bessemyonov doesn't want his head through the wall. On the contrary - the worried father is looking for the reason that his daughter is “withering away” and comes to the conclusion that he “shouldn't have sent Tatiana to schools”. Now it is too late. Tatiana lacks faith because she was taught to use her mind in schools. But nothing is lost yet. Tatiana is supposed to get married. Then the father pays her 50 rubles a month. But when Nil turns to the young Polja, the bitter old man declares the happy couple as his adversary - says to Nil: "... from now on we are enemies". When Tatjana then drinks ammonia and burns her esophagus , he calls Polja a poisonous snake, a beggar woman.

But old Bessemjonow is no match for the young couple Jelena and Pyotr. Jelena surprises the old man with the admission that it was she who successfully wooed the beloved son.

philosophy

Grandiose speeches occur everywhere in the play. For example, Pyotr is resigned: "... I say ' Russia ' and feel that it is empty sound for me." The viewer does not miss - the logician Gorky studied his Kant and Schopenhauer . The non-philosopher Jelena - an avid student of Birkhahn - presents concentrated philosophy in such fragments that it must have an amusing effect on the listener: There is the "wonderful" sentence of sufficient reason with its fourfold roots . " Causal nexus , a priori and a posteriori ", Jelena trumpeted, would also still exist.

Adaptations

Russian
German
  • 1969, ZDF , TV film by Werner Schlechte

reception

  • Ludwig dedicates a separate chapter to the play in her Gorki book and writes about the “figure of the worker and revolutionary Nil. Such a figure appeared on the Russian stage for the first time. "Ludwig thinks that Gorky is launching" his main character [Nil] a historically necessary type on the stage. "And quotes Gorky as he contrasted the revolutionary Nile with the petty bourgeoisie Pyotr:" ... he [Pyotr] will be a petty bourgeois, just as a knack as his father, not as strong and capable of working as this one, but smarter and more devious ... in life he will be a pathetic crook, a cheap, talentless little lawyer ... "
  • Christian Rakow on May 10, 2011 in Berlin: Fishing in general human terms
  • Michael Laages on May 11, 2011 in Berlin: Descent of the middle class
  • CM Meier at Parallelwelten at Theater Critics Munich

German-language editions

Used edition

  • Petty bourgeoisie. German by Werner Creutziger. With an afterword and comments by Ilse Stauche. P. 5–121 in: Maxim Gorki: Dramen II. 672 pages. Vol. 21 from: Eva Kosing (Ed.), Edel Mirowa-Florin (Ed.): Maxim Gorki: Collected works in individual volumes. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1974

literature

  • Nadeshda Ludwig: Maxim Gorki. Life and work. Series of Contemporary Writers. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1984.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ludwig, illustration on p. 86
  2. ↑ Stauche in the edition used, pp. 655–656
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 60, 4. Zvo
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 52, 10. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 84, 6. Zvo
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 105, middle
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 119, 7th Zvu
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 15, 5th Zvu
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 108, middle
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 117, 5th Zvu and p. 88, 3rd Zvu
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 27, 8th Zvu
  12. ↑ Edition used, p. 103
  13. ↑ Russian Мещане (спектакль, 1966)
  14. ↑ Russian Товстоногов, Георгий Александрович
  15. ↑ Entry in the zdf theater channel
  16. ↑ Ludwig, pp. 82-91
  17. ↑ Ludwig, p. 83, 11. Zvo
  18. ↑ Ludwig, p. 88, 12. Zvo
  19. ↑ Gorki wrote to Stanislawski in January 1902 , cited in Ludwig, p. 85, 19. Zvo