Napoleon or The Hundred Days

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Data
Title: Napoleon or The Hundred Days
Original language: German
Author: Christian Dietrich Grabbe
Publishing year: 1831
Premiere: 1895
Place of premiere: Frankfurt am Main
people
French people
Prussia
English people

Napoleon or The Hundred Days is a drama in five acts by Christian Dietrich Grabbe . The first print appeared in Frankfurt am Main in 1831. The piece premiered at the same location 64 years later. It takes place in February and March 1815. Grabbe describes Napoleon's return from exile on the island of Elba and his journey to Paris and then how the Emperor was defeated by the English Duke Wellington and the Prussian General Blücher at the Battle of Waterloo. The play is rich in facts and is based closely on historical events.

content

Act 1

In a crowd scene under the arcades of the Palais Royal , the opinions of various people on the restoration of the Bourbons are shown. A sarcastic singer makes fun of the emperor, about which two abdicated soldiers of his guards are outraged, while the people of Paris are opportunistic and loyal to the king. Two noble emigrants indulge their memories of the time before the French Revolution.

One is sure of power at court. But on Elba Napoleon stands on the beach and thinks of France. He still remembers the time when he ruled Europe: "The sun went down with me."

Change of scene. The king receives the terrible message from his brother , a carefree hunting enthusiast: "Yes, I just hear, Bonaparte has landed near Toulon ." Napoleon is before Lyon , it is reported. On March 17th, the Corsican marched into Auxerre . Hardly anyone wants to know anything about the king. When the emperor arrived in Fontainebleau , the “cynical radical” Jouve took the lead of the Parisian mob , assassinated a master tailor who was loyal to the king, and the people followed his exclamation: “Cheer up the emperor!” The king had long since escaped in the direction of Lille seized, and the Congress of Vienna broke up.

Napoleon has no time. The Prussians camp near Ligny . The emperor hurriedly reinstated old ministers and formed his Grande Armée . Only once in the drama does Grabbe let the ruler over the French act humanely: in dialogue with his stepdaughter Hortense .

Clément-Auguste Andrieux (1852):
The Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815

On the battlefield, the French initially think they are victorious over the Prussians. But “the Prussians fight better than they did at Jena .” The tide turns.

Change of scene. A hotel in Brussels. The Duke of Wellington celebrates carefree and receives news of what is going on. "Alarm! The English military calls out. “All troops advanced to Waterloo!” With that, Napoleon's fate is sealed. Wellington slips away his famous sentence on the way in the field: "I'm afraid if Blücher doesn't come soon ...", but when one of his officers asks him to retreat during the halting advance, he shows character. Wellington holds up.

Change of scene. The French realize that “the whole wood of Frichemont is full of Prussia” and the British are also advancing. Napoleon blames Grouchy : “That the fate of great France can depend on the stupidity, negligence or wickedness of a single wretched man!” The emperor dismounts his horse, pulls blank and shouts: “Guards of all branches of service after me!” Then the Kaiser thinks differently. Napoleon abandons his retreating, declining guard. The Corsican sums up: "Treason, chance and misfortune make the bravest army more fearful than a child - It's over - We have dreamed big for about a hundred days since Elba ." The guard is "cut down" by the "Allied cavalry", but dies with a research Say on the lips: “Die ... worthy, there is no other way. - Well, comrades, your mustaches neatly straightened out - we'll be in heaven soon. "

shape

  • The piece contains time criticism. A Berliner z. B. before the battle that he became a volunteer, however, admits: “But, I have to become that, otherwise they would involuntarily have made me do it.” And Napoleon pities the victors: “Instead of a great tyrant, as they call me if you like, you will soon have a thousand little ones. "
  • Grabbe does not hide the horrors of war.
    • The emperor's supporters roar hurray while they are still dying: "AGAIN A GUARDIAN with a cannonball ripping open his body: Long live the emperor!"
    • The Prussians are not "at a peasant wedding at Pasewalk". The terrible always happens unpredictably and all of a sudden - e.g. B. "... when a cannonball tears off the head of Ephraim [Jewish volunteer from Berlin] ."
    • Wellington during the battle: "Today death chokes so generally that it seems quite ordinary."
  • The drama has "obvious weaknesses".
    • His confusion is noticeable. Approaches to tighter management of the staff can be found: Vitry and Chassecoeur z. B., the two old guardsmen, not only appear at the beginning of the drama, but later also act in Ligny in the vicinity of Napoleon. Vitry finds an open ear from his emperor: Napoleon makes Chassecoeur a captain. And other memorable figures, such as B. the monster Jouve are not missing. Usually, however, the first appearance of most of the well over a hundred speakers is their quick departure, never to be seen again. And people who play leading roles in Waterloo - like Milhaud - are introduced far too late. The only exception to that strange rule is the Grand Maréchal Bertrand. Although it always occurs once, it also has human features, but remains pale overall.
    • Grabbe's “positive message” - the “German-patriotic gesture”: The leisurely Prussians - this conglomerate of East Prussians, Silesians and Berliners - look extremely embarrassing on the evening before the battle. How the good fellows, sure of victory, sit down with their major and then sing a patriotic song, that is almost unbearable. Grabbe surpasses that too. Blücher's picture is flawlessly drawn. Neither a worthless imperial defector nor any fatal turn in the course of the battle can disturb the infallible 72-year-old field marshal.
    • Some quite verbose appearances, such as B. that of the Berliners who constantly confuse “me” and “me” appear as forced jokes, as jokes.
    • Grabbe admits the failure of his questionable experiment: Hannibal “succeeded three times better than Napoleon”.

Testimonials

Grabbe to his piece

  • The piece is "real and reaches into time."
  • Napoleon "is a guy whose egoism drove to use his time."
  • Napoleon "is smaller than the revolution, and basically he is just the flag on its masts."
  • "With the end of Napoleon, the world became as if it were a read out book."
  • On August 4th, 1830: "Napoleon becomes his own, - the current theater is no good, - the world is mine."

reception

  • Grabbe criticizes feudalism, absolutism, liberalism and revolutionary activism.
  • With the mouthpiece of Blücher, Grabbe articulated the "hope for a Germany united under Prussian leadership."
  • Löb praises: " Napoleon " remains "a terrific experiment."
  • “Grabbe's Technotheater” or the new media in 1815: Wiemer picks up the optical telegraphy incorporated into the play and presents Napoleon “as the mentally present boss of a news center”. The king, on the other hand - pure message recipient - is the loser.
  • One of the many questions in the play is: Does Grabbe make his Napoleon a ridiculous figure if he lets him sleep on a carriage in the midst of excited French people before the battle ?
  • The figure of the "head-chopper Jouve" goes back to Mathieu Jouve Jourdan .
  • Intriguers and conspirators like Fouché and Carnot have shown Grabbe realistically.
  • Why did Grabbe work on the Napoleon fabric? Cowen replies: Grabbe and his countrymen were bored at the time. And the mendacity of the times gave rise to longing for the Emperor of the French.
  • The piece is a "monstrous historical ham" and actually belongs to the so-called "unplayable".
  • Grabbe have chosen the piece - z. B. for the representation of the people of Paris - "Shakespeare's bourgeois and riot scenes" taken as a model.

literature

source
  • Napoleon or The Hundred Days. A drama in five acts. In: Grabbe's works in two volumes. Second volume. Pp. 117-275. Comments by Hans-Georg Werner (pp. 413–425). Library of German classics. Published by the National Research and Memorial Centers for Classical German Literature in Weimar. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and Weimar 1987. 435 pages, ISBN 3-351-00113-4
expenditure
Secondary literature
  • German literary history. Volume 6. Annemarie and Wolfgang van Rinsum: Early Realism 1815–1848 . Pp. 83-95. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, December 1992 (3rd edition, February 2001). 322 pages, ISBN 3-423-03346-0
  • Ladislaus Löb: Christian Dietrich Grabbe . Pp. 63-69. Verlag JB Metzler Stuttgart and Weimar 1996. 170 pages, ISBN 3-476-10294-7
  • Carl Wiemer: Palimpsest of the Posthistoire . Grabbe's seismography of the new media . P. 26–46 in: Detlev Kopp (ed.): Christian Dietrich Grabbe - A modern playwright . Aisthesis Verlag Bielefeld 1996. 199 pages, ISBN 3-89528-118-2
  • Roy C. Cowen: Christian Dietrich Grabbe - playwright of unsolved contradictions . Pp. 145-167. Aisthesis Verlag Bielefeld 1998. 269 pages, ISBN 3-89528-163-8
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . S. 211. Stuttgart 2004. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source, p. 413
  2. ^ Löb, p. 64
  3. ↑ Source, p. 233, 2. Zvo
  4. ↑ Source, p. 241, 17. Zvo
  5. ↑ Source, p. 257, 7. Zvo
  6. ↑ Source, p. 272, 12. Zvo
  7. ↑ Source, p. 273
  8. ↑ Source, p. 215
  9. ↑ Source, p. 272, 6th Zvu
  10. ↑ Source, p. 231, 19. Zvo
  11. ↑ Source, p. 250
  12. ↑ Source, p. 246, 2. Zvo
  13. ↑ Source, p. 261, 18. Zvo
  14. ↑ Löb, p. 69, 17. Zvo
  15. ↑ a b c Löb, p. 63
  16. ↑ Source, notes, p. 425 18. Zvo
  17. ↑ Cowen, p. 153, 6. Zvo
  18. ↑ Löb, p. 65, 7. Zvo
  19. ↑ a b Cowen, p. 159
  20. ↑ Cowen, p. 163, 13. Zvo
  21. ^ Lothar Ehrlich quoted in Löb, p. 67, 9. Zvo
  22. ↑ Löb, p. 69, 18. Zvo
  23. ↑ Wiemer, p. 36
  24. ↑ Wiemer, p. 27 below
  25. ↑ Wiemer, p. 28 below
  26. ↑ Wiemer, p. 35 middle
  27. ^ Cowen, p. 157
  28. ^ Cowen, p. 157 below
  29. ↑ Performance Stadttheater Trier, discussion by Pia Röver ( Memento from December 9, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  30. ↑ Rinsum, p. 83, 15. Zvu