Lassalle asks Mr. Herbert about Sonja

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Lassalle asks Herbert about Sonja. The scene in a salon is a three-act play by Christoph Hein , which was premiered on November 19, 1980 in the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf under the direction of Heinz Engels . The GDR first performance followed in Erfurt on February 14, 1987, directed by Ekkehardt Emig with Matthias Brenner as Lassalle and Matthias Winde as Vahlteich . The play was performed on October 26, 1989 in Recklinghausen (director: Wolfgang Lichtenstein) and on January 25, 1990 in Stralsund (director: Fred Grasnick).

The text was published in 1981 as part of the “Cromwell and other pieces” collection at Aufbau-Verlag Berlin.

content

action

The action takes place in Lassalle's Salon in Berlin in 1864.

1

The shop girl Marie worriedly asks Lassalle's employee Vahlteich what about Fraulein Sonja von Sontzeff. Vahlteich replies that Lassalle proposed to the Russian woman. Marie is deeply disappointed. Vahlteich confesses his love for the shop girl. The beloved doesn't want to know anything about Vahlteich. When Lassalle finally slept in, Marie was long gone. The landlord finds his secretary Vahlteich debating with Riistow . Lassalle dismisses Vahlteich. With the help of his servant Herbert, the landlord found out that Vahlteich corresponded with London. Mr. Marx , this communist, can no longer stand Lassalle at all. Riistow makes derogatory comments about Lassalle's general workers' association with its 1200 members in Germany . The press was silent on Lassalle's party and the one reception of the party leader at Bismarck meant little. Vahlteich, who despite being fired, is still in Lassalle's salon, also makes a difference. Lassalle gives in. He is not the man who can force “proletarian liberation”. Lassalle suspects class barriers to be the cause and confesses to Vahlteich that he is not a proletarian but a petty bourgeois. Lassalle very much hopes that the Russian Sonja will soon appear in the salon with the waiting invited guests to celebrate the engagement. He had had a 39-page marriage proposal - written last night - delivered to the noblewoman, who was not even 20 years old, at the Hôtel de Rome .

2

From the appearance of Lassalle's brother-in-law Ferdinand Friedland, the host is being held up by his girlfriend, Countess von Hatzfeld , who is twenty years older than him, and that brother-in-law. Said countess can only shake her head. Again and again, the friend tries to get a young aristocrat into bed and every time he finds the shop girl in his clumsiness. Riistow does not hide his concerns from Lassalle either. The little Russian woman would marry a man who has not yet completely overcome syphilis. Lassalle trivializes the disease that has been overcome. Sonja's papa only speaks two sentences of German - a negative and an affirmative formula - but the Russian Sontzeff is at least the governor . Lassalle's friend von Schweitzer, on the other hand, is enthusiastic about marrying a rich Russian woman. Vahlteich accuses Schweitzer of pederasty . Schweitzer admits this.

Instead of the longed-for young bride, Marie appears - disguised as a lady - in the salon. Lassalle does not want her lover to be present at the small celebration. Marie immediately gives up her role and leaves. The Russian comes without a daughter. Sonja has already left the hotel. Your departure to Russia is imminent. The young girl is only waiting for her father at the Szczecin train station . The governor brings Sonja's written rejection and abruptly rejects all of Lassalle's "advances". 39-year-old Lassalle is deeply disappointed. He absolutely needs a beautiful foreign girl for bed. The workers leader is fed up with "revolutionary games". Rather, Lassalle would like to "screw" a few carefully selected women.

3

Vahlteich, who is still present in the salon, reads from the newspaper to Herbert, the servant. Lassalle died in the hospital as a result of a duel. The opponent could not have been a man of honor, because he had aimed far too deep and hit Lasselle's "cock". Marie comes and worries about her beloved Lassalle from Vahlteich; asks about Fräulein von Dönniges , the cause of the duel. Vahlteich doesn't know anything more precisely and, since Lassalle has now died, wants to go to Dresden with Marie. Another rejection of the application provokes clumsy intrusiveness at Vahlteich. Marie then gives him another basket and leaves. Herbert, now finally master of the house on behalf of the Countess von Hatzfeld, throws Vahlteich out. But the servant finds his master in Lassalle's brother-in-law Friedland. The brother-in-law routinely grabs Lassalle's legacy and throws Herbert a few chunks on the side.

reception

Comments after stage performances

World premiere in Düsseldorf:
  • Ulrich Schreiber in the “ Frankfurter Rundschau ” of November 14, 1980: Those viewers who cannot separate privacy from politics deserve this Heinschen Lassalle. Heinz Engels got everything essential wrong.
  • Heinrich Vormweg (in the " Süddeutsche Zeitung " of November 13, 1980) is irritated and frustrated. What wonder - Hein has planned too much.
  • Heinz Klunker in “ Theater heute ”, volume 2, 1981: Hein only used Lassalle for his autobiographical play. The audience probably doesn't understand the piece at all.
  • Jochen Schmidt in the " Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung " of November 13, 1980: Hein is getting the historical personality Lassalle off the pedestal in a questionable way; accuse her of serious weaknesses.
  • Andreas Roßmann in “ Germany Archive ” 1981, p. 125: By letting the early workers' leaders appear in the salon, Hein is presenting them unhistorically. Engels' staging does not do justice to this obvious ambiguity in the text.
GDR premiere in Erfurt:
  • Georg Menchén in " Theater der Zeit ", volume 5, 1987: The play lacks depth, but not depth.

Meetings

  • Janssen-Zimmermann: The egoist Lassalle wanted to cast off his petty-bourgeois origin.
  • Kievitz
    • Hein criticizes Marxism-Leninism with his play .
    • Mr. Herbert: The unusually long title expresses Lassalle's temporary passivity in the piece. Servant Herbert lets himself be dubbed “master” and is the master of the house. For example, Herbert harassed Lassalle's frail mother with the son's express approval. In the sub-chapter “The subject as master”, Kiewitz goes even further. Herbert, who stands there in the 3rd act without testimony from his employer Lassalle, who died after the 2nd act, gives Vahlteich his thoughts on the question 'What now?' Herbert would like to "maybe found a party". For Kiewitz, Herbert is a forerunner of the National Socialists and his contemplated party is one of those who fell short.
    • Christianity versus Judaism : Kiewitz dedicates an entire sub-chapter to this topic in connection with Lassalle's obscure “love” for Sonja. At no point does Hein write that Lassalle is a Jew. But the reader of the piece's text is taken aback on the very first page. Lassalle's mother is called Frau Lassal. This is not a misprint. Lassalle's father was the wealthy Wroclaw Jew Heyman Lassal . Ferdinand Lassal simply renamed himself in 1846. Suddenly the new family name sounds French. Anyone who does not know this connection is taken aback a second time while reading the book when Ms. Lassal speaks of Kaddish .
    • The waiting: The delegation of Berlin workers waited just as in vain for Lassalle as the invited guests in the salon for the Russian Sonja. Lassalle wanted more than a party of just 1200 workers. He is also not satisfied with the faithful shop girl Marie as bedfellow. Lassalle waits (in vain) for Sonja. In the latter context, Kiewitz sees Lassalle as an opportunist who seeks proximity to the aristocracy. Marie is also waiting for Lassalle. Her love goes beyond his death. Marie also rejects Vahlteich after her lover has died. According to Kiewitz, for Marie Lassalle is something like the "bearer of a utopia" that gives meaning to life.
  • Preusser and Hammer name 15 works.

literature

Text output

Used edition
  • "Lassalle asks Herbert about Sonja". The scene a salon . P. 89–159 in: Christoph Hein: Cromwell and other pieces. Afterword by Rudolf Münz. Structure, Berlin 1981, DNB 820239119 .

Secondary literature

  • Heinz-Peter Preußer, Klaus Hammer: Selected Bibliography Christoph Hein. Pp. 92–105 in: in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.): Text + kritik , issue 111: Christoph Hein . edition text + kritik, Munich, July 1991, ISBN 3-88377-391-3 , ISSN  0040-5329 .
  • Klaus Hammer (Ed.): Chronicler without a message. Christoph Hein. A work book. Materials, information, bibliography. Construction Verlag , Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-351-02152-6 .
  • Antje Janssen-Zimmermann: Subjective objectivity . Three theater texts by Christoph Hein - a trilogy of socialism ? P. 184–194 in Klaus Hammer (Ed.): Chronicler without a message. Christoph Hein. A work book. Materials, information, bibliography. Structure, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-351-02152-6 .
  • Christl Kiewitz: The silent scream. Crisis and criticism of the socialist intelligentsia in the work of Christoph Hein. Stauffenburg Verlag , Tübingen 1995, pp. 86-112, ISBN 3-86057-137-0 ( dissertation at the University of Augsburg 1994).

Remarks

  1. ↑ Lassalle died in 1864.
  2. ↑ Hein reproduces the Russian with a mixture of transcription and the original. For example, with “pascholl won” (Edition used, p. 139, 3rd Zvo) he means “Пошёл вон!”: “Get out!” And when the St. Petersburg governor doesn't know what to do next , the reader suddenly has to Understand Cyrillic characters (Edition used, p. 143, from 11. Zvu: "Невозможно" (impossible)).
  3. ↑ Kiewitz (Kiewitz, p. 99) relativizes this devastating judgment with her theory of Lassalle as the “bearer of a utopia” (see below).
  4. ↑ Kiewitz (Kiewitz, p. 96) also writes about the “life confession” of an egoist when discussing Lassalle's 39-page “love letter” to Sonja.
  5. ↑ Lassalle asks Herbert once: "Where did the girl go?" (Edition used, p. 141, 4th Zvu)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hammer, p. 264, entry 1980
  2. ↑ Hammer, p. 278 below
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 116, above
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 126, 3rd Zvu
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 146, 2nd Zvu
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 149, 13. Zvo
  7. ↑ a b quoted in Hammer, p. 239, below
  8. ↑ quoted in Hammer, p. 241, middle
  9. ↑ quoted in Hammer, p. 241, below
  10. ↑ quoted in Hammer, p. 242, middle
  11. ↑ quoted in Hammer, p. 243
  12. ↑ Janssen-Zimmermann, p. 187
  13. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 86 below
  14. ↑ Kiewitz, pp. 107–110
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 150, 2. Zvo
  16. ↑ Kiewitz, pp. 101-104
  17. ↑ Gösta von Uexküll , quoted in Kiewitz, p. 95, footnote 18
  18. ↑ Edition used, p. 138, 6th Zvu
  19. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 97
  20. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 98
  21. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 99
  22. ^ Preusser and Hammer, p. 97