Martin Luther & Thomas Münzer or The introduction of bookkeeping
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Genus: | history |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Dieter Forte |
| Publishing year: | 1971 |
| Premiere: | 1970 |
| Place of premiere: | Basel Theater , Basel |
| people | |
|
|
Martin Luther & Thomas Münzer or The Introduction of Accounting is a dramatic play by Dieter Forte from 1970.
action
Albrecht von Brandenburg buys the appointment of Archbishop of Mainz from the Pope . To do this, he takes out a loan from the Fuggers , which he wants to repay by means of indulgences . When Elector Friedrich von Sachsen found out that the indulgence preacher Tetzel was also selling indulgences to his subjects, he decided to prevent this - not for religious but for fiscal reasons. He sends his secretary Georg Spalatin to Martin Luther, who teaches theology at the University of Wittenberg , which is subordinate to Friedrich . Spalatin encourages Luther to publish the 95 theses against indulgences that he has already written. But the theses are declared heretical by the church, and at the Reichstag in Augsburg, Cardinal Cajetan demands of Friedrich to hand Luther over to the church. But Luther protects Luther in his own financial interest and declares that he is not responsible. Emperor Maximilian, however, who could decide on religious matters in the empire, dies shortly afterwards, and the powerful are concerned with the question of succession. With the help of bribes that Jakob Fugger raised, Maximilian's grandson Karl was elected as the new emperor. Then the wrangling over Luther continues. He was summoned to the Reichstag in Worms , where he initially defended his theses. But when he was under pressure to consider revoking it, Friedrich forced him to stand firm in order to secure his finances. On the way home to Wittenberg , Frederick's soldiers kidnapped Luther to the Wartburg to protect him, but also to keep him under control. There Luther translates the Bible into German. His supporters Karlstadt and Thomas Münzer meanwhile speak out in favor of far-reaching social changes. So Luther was allowed to return to Wittenberg soon afterwards to counter Karlstadt's ideas. However, Münzer's influence on the population continues to grow. He calls on the peasants to revolt in order to change society through violence. But the peasant uprisings fail, the army of princes wins. Thomas Müntzer is captured and beheaded. At the end of the piece, the Fugger company takes stock. Despite the turmoil of the times, the company made a profit.
Reception and staging
The first performance of the play, which has no classical nudes division, took place in Basel in 1970 after it was not allowed to be premiered by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus ; It was first published in book form in 1971. It sharply criticizes Luther and organized religion as well as capitalism . Luther is portrayed as a mere plaything for the powerful, headed by neither emperor nor elector, but the merchant Jakob Fugger. This in turn uses his capital against the people led by Thomas Müntzer.
The play, a global success in its time, which was translated into nine languages, is Forte's best-known work to this day. In Germany it was received very controversially: While the left - especially the student movement at the time - was enthusiastic, others accused it of falsifying history. Forte, however, emphasized that he had closely followed the historical sources. The historian Reinhart Koselleck has expressly rejected this claim : The author has no adequate idea of what history should be and therefore blames the characters in his drama for “alleged consequences of German history”, whereby “a personalizing story apart from the real ones People "arise.
The play was performed several times on German theater stages and filmed for television. From a production at the Schauspiel Köln in 1972, in which Götz George was involved, individual scenes were recorded for television. In 1983, in the year of Martin Luther's 500th birthday, Südwestfunk , Radio DRS Basel and Sender Freies Berlin produced the piece as a 200-minute radio play that Eric Till released on CD on the occasion of the film Luther's theatrical release. In 1984 GDR television recorded Fortes play at the Rostock Volkstheater , with Uwe-Detlev Jessen as Martin Luther and Peter Radestock as Thomas Münzer . Hanns Anselm Perten directed the theater and Michael Krull directed the television .
In the long run, the play could not establish itself on German stages. It is rarely performed these days. In Augsburg it was staged by Maik Priebe at the Augsburg Theater on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation .
Martin Luther & Thomas Münzer or The Introduction of Bookkeeping is the first part of a trilogy by the writer Dieter Forte that deals with the relationship between reason and faith. The trilogy also includes the plays Jean Henry Dunant (1978) and The Labyrinth of Dreams (1983).
See also
References and comments
- ↑ The piece was only published in book form one year after the premiere.
- ↑ Dieter Forte commented in the list of roles in the play that the Pope can also be played by a young woman.
- ↑ Lothar Schröder : The eternity of the library: News from Dieter Forte . In: Rheinische Post . March 6, 2019, p. A6 .
- ↑ a b c Theater & Bunker: Dieter Forte is 75
- ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.); Michael Töteberg : Critical lexicon for contemporary German literature . under: Dieter Forte, p. 2 ff.
- ↑ For example: Erwin Mühlhaupt: Falsch-Müntzerei or The Caricature of the Reformation History in Dieter Forte's play: Martin Luther and Thomas Münzer or The introduction of bookkeeping. 3. Edition. Karlsruhe 1971.
- ↑ So already on page 206 of the published book of the play
- ↑ Reinhart Koselleck , Fiction and historical reality, in: ders., On the sense and nonsense of history. Essays and lectures from four decades. Edited and with an afterword by Carsten Dutt, Berlin 2010, 93–95.
- ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.); Michael Töteberg: Critical lexicon for contemporary German literature. under: Dieter Forte, p. 2.
- ↑ The film, with a length of 140 minutes, is also called Martin Luther and Thomas Münzer or The Introduction of Accounting . - It can be found in the German Broadcasting Archive Potsdam-Babelsberg .
- ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.); Michael Töteberg: Critical lexicon for contemporary German literature. under: Dieter Forte, p. 4.
- ↑ Martin Luther & Thomas Münzer or The introduction of bookkeeping. on the website of the Theater Augsburg
- ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.); Michael Töteberg: Critical lexicon for contemporary German literature. under: Dieter Forte, p. 8.
literature
- Dieter Forte: Martin Luther & Thomas Münzer or The introduction of bookkeeping. Wagenbach, Berlin 1971, DNB 456642676 . (with a comment from Fortes "On the method")
- again: Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1971, ISBN 3-10-021110-3 .
- again in: Spectaculum 18. Five modern plays. Suhrkamp 1973, 1984 (with Fortes note)