Now they are singing again

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now they are singing again. An attempt at a requiem is a drama by the Swiss writer Max Frisch . It was created in January 1945 as Max Frisch's second play, but was premiered on March 29, 1945 at the Zurich Schauspielhaus under the direction of Kurt Horwitz before the earlier Santa Cruz .

Under the impression of the Second World War , Frisch in Now they sing again depicts the war from different perspectives, from the point of view of perpetrators and victims as well as both warring parties. The title alludes to the singing of a group of shot hostages. In the end there is an encounter between the survivors and the dead. While the former want to go on living as before and seek revenge, the latter call for reconciliation and a new beginning. Frisch's piece was played frequently until the 1960s and understood as a contribution to coming to terms with the past .

content

First picture

Herbert, an officer, ordered Karl, a soldier, to shoot a group of hostages. Now he forces a priest to dig the grave for the murdered. Karl is disturbed by what he did, he still hears the hostages singing. Herbert proclaims his view of the world: there is no spirit in the world, only the pursuit of power that cannot be stopped by anything. Under his threat, the priest swears perjury. Herbert still wants to have him shot, but Karl refuses to be executed and deserted .

Second picture

The head teacher, Karl’s father and Herbert’s former teacher, and Maria, Karl’s wife and young mother, mourn Karl’s mother, who was buried in a bomb attack. Herbert's sister Liesel reports that she saw Karl, who ran away before her. The head teacher cannot explain such behavior on the part of his son. He curses their enemies as satans.

Third picture

Six young aviators are waiting for their war effort. They play chess, talk about women and discuss the planned bombing. While one longs for peace, the next describes the misdeeds of their enemies. For him, too, his opponents are satans with whom no peace is possible. The men get into an argument about German music. One still thinks it is the best of the Germans, another cannot bear its false beauty in an ugly world. Benjamin, who is supposed to fly his first mission and wants to become a poet after the war, foresees her fall to her death.

Fourth picture

In the basement of his house, the head teacher discovers his son Karl, who is hiding as a deserter. The father tries to convince his son to return to the troops that he is not to blame for the ordered shooting. But Karl insists that obedience does not release from responsibility.

When the bomb alarm sounds, the other residents pour into the cellar and Karl flees. While the residents are waiting for the attack, the caretaker rebukes any critical comments . Finally, Maria can no longer stand it in the basement and rushes outside with the baby. It burns in the bombs. Karl hangs himself. Now the head teacher, who had been loyal to the line up to now, also rebels and calls his own soldiers no better than their enemies. For this he is reported by the caretaker.

Fifth picture

The planes crashed. Still trying to hide or reach the limit at first, they gradually realize that they are long dead. They meet the priest, who feeds them bread and wine and preaches forgiveness. The captain regrets the unlived life and longs for a new beginning. The hostages who were shot sing, Karl, who shot them, joins them.

Sixth picture

Maria meets Benjamin. The enemy's initial fear of each other fades into the background in the face of death. They realize that they could have loved one another. Herbert leads the head teacher into the field to shoot him. While the head teacher recognizes him as his best student, Herbert despises the humanistic spirit that the teacher once preached to them, only to betray him out of cowardice before the eyes of the students. He shoots the head teacher, who now also steps up to the dead.

Last picture

Relatives of the aviators go to their graves. The dead try in vain to establish contact with the living, to induce them to lead a different life and to reconcile with one another. But the living see the only consolation in rebuilding everything as before and avenging the dead. The priest draws the conclusion that life and death, stars and heaven are free. Love is also free, but it alone does not despair of this knowledge.

History of origin

Max Frisch rehearsing Biedermann and the arsonists in 1958

In the summer of 1944, after reading J'adore ce qui me brûle or Die Schwierigen Frisch , the dramaturge invited Kurt Hirschfeld to the Zurich Schauspielhaus and encouraged him to write a play. After just a few weeks, Frisch finished his first play Santa Cruz . In January 1945, in a period of two to three weeks , they are now singing again . In retrospect, Frisch described the piece as “a first reflex to the events that surrounded us, back then with an attitude of being frightened and wanting to reconcile”.

Due to the topicality of the war piece, this Frisch's first work was brought forward and premiered on March 29, 1945 at the Zurich Schauspielhaus just a few months after its creation. Directed by Kurt Horwitz , to whom Frisch dedicated the later book edition “in adoration”. The stage design came from Teo Otto . It played Wolfgang Langhoff , Armin Schweizer , Erika Pesch , Robert Trösch and Emil Stöhr . Interned Poles, whom Hans Mayer had recruited from refugee camps, formed the chorus of hostages . Since the stage of the theater was always occupied, the rehearsals took place in the foyer of the theater. In his diary 1946–1949 , Frisch described: "The rehearsal period, which Kurt Horwitz conducted with objective devotion, was perhaps the sweetest that the theater has ever to offer, the first encounter with one's own word spoken by bodily figures."

Now they are singing again was also Frisch's first play to be played in Germany. The German premiere took place in December 1946 at the Münchner Kammerspiele under the direction of Bruno Huebner . In the same season, the Junge Bühne Hamburg joined, directed by Answald Krüger. The book edition was rejected by Atlantis Verlag , after which Walter Muschg published the piece in 1946 in the Swiss series of Benno Schwabe . The second part was preceded by a motto by Paul Adolf Brenner , which was omitted in later editions: “If once after the confusion of these days / the healing, the repentance, conquers us / then our mourning for the dead / the angel's song will drown out love sings. "

Frisch put a statement in front of the book edition that the performance should largely be without backdrops, so that the impression of the game is preserved, "so that no one will compare it to real events, which are monstrous." He wondered if he was himself as the unaffected person even had a word to say about the events and found a justification in the fact that “we, who have not experienced it first hand, are freed from the temptation of all vengeance.” Finally he concluded: “They are scenes that are far off Grief has to think again and again [...]; others will think of others. "

reception

Reactions to the premiere

The reactions to the Zurich premiere were very positive. Elisabeth Brock-Sulzer praised: “This is the drama of the innermost structure, of the moving word and as such a faithful reflection of the inner soul's war experience as given by the Swiss situation.” Walter Boesch was “moved” in the Tages-Anzeiger “ Feeling from the deepest participation how strong and adherent a 'truth proclaimer' has spoken out in accordance with our Swiss attitude ”. The Swiss playwright Caesar von Arx called Now they are singing again "simply beautiful [...], so simple and calm and deep, so poetic." The magazine Sie und Er judged Frisch: "This voice was still missing in today's dramatic work" .

However, the play's neutral point of view, Frisch's lack of blame, was controversial. Bernhard Diebold praised the fact : “The poet does not want to take earthly side like the poet of tendencies. [...] There was hardly any more distinction between 'friend' and 'enemy' - so inwardly the poet and the director had what is absolutely human and the applause of those who love peace was great. ” Weltwoche , on the other hand, judged more critically :“ This neutrality is ultimately lack of position. "

The “neutral mourning” - as Frisch himself later critically admitted - also led to a first break in Frisch's long-term collaboration with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung . On the front page of the newspaper Ernst Bieri classified Frisch among the “lawyers of the 'misguided'”, in whose play “terror is glossed over as the elicitor of the spirit”: “We are standing here before the beginnings of an unconscious current that in turn is right Wants to turn wrong and true into false. "Frisch replied in a long letter that the NZZ refused to print :" Forgiveness is also presumptuous. As Swiss we have to be prepared for the fact that Germans do not need us to become aware of their guilt ”. On the other hand, Frisch turned his gaze to his own country: “Most of what arouses public outrage today, our people could and should have known for a long time […]. Instead, today we see the commercialized outrage over a shame which, at the bottom of our previous knowledge and silence, is also our shame ”.

Admission in Germany

Now they are singing again and Frisch also made it known in Germany. According to Lioba Waleczek, he became “a publicly respected voice” in the neighboring country. According to Volker Hage, the performances in the 1946/47 season at the Münchner Kammerspiele and the Junge Bühne Hamburg "gave rise to heated debates, but also to admiration for the ability of the neutral observer to provide images from both sides of the front." Der Spiegel counted a shared recording in the Kammerspiele. Erich Kästner praised the play as important because it directs the view from the guilt of individuals to the collective guilt of humanity.

Max Frisch reported in 1946 about a whole box of letters from Germany: "Almost everyone [...] has an arrogance that no longer allows an answer". According to Urs Bircher, the pessimism and the unteachable nature of the survivors in Frisch's play initially alienated the German audience; it was not until the 1950s that Germany gratefully took up the exculpatory possibility of the general concept of guilt in Frisch's play. For example, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung in 1957 spoke of a “conciliatory perspective” that made the otherwise unbearable guilt of the living bearable. Until the 1960s, Nunsingen was played again frequently and understood as a “Requiem for the war dead” and as a contribution to coming to terms with the past .

Adaptations

In 1965 Fritz Umgelter started singing them again as a television play. Among others, Ernst Wilhelm Borchert , Otto Rouvel , Cordula Trantow , Michael Hinz , Ralf Schermuly and Helmut Förnbacher played . Walter Jens described in the time :

"Fritz Umgelter staged Frisch's Requiem. Now they are singing again in the style of the people's day of mourning : woodcut figures spoke their litany against a black background, the camera followed the stations of a Passion Path, you didn't walk: you walked, dramatic gestures and psychological accents were avoided."

The Internet database of the ARD radio play archive lists five German radio plays that were created between 1946 and 1960.

literature

Text output

  • Max Frisch: Now they're singing again. Attempt at a requiem . Schwabe , Basel 1946 (first edition).
  • Max Frisch: Now they're singing again. Attempt at a requiem . In: Hans Mayer, Walter Schmitz (eds.); Max Frisch: Collected works in chronological order. Second volume, 1944-1949 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-37902-X , pp. 79-136 (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch , volume 1402).

Secondary literature

  • Manfred Durzak: Dürrenmatt, Frisch, Weiss. German drama of the present between criticism and utopia . Reclam, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-15-010201-4 , pp. 165-174.
  • Manfred Jurgensen : Max Frisch. The dramas . Francke, Bern 1976, ISBN 3-7720-1160-8 , pp. 92-103.
  • Hellmuth Karasek : Max Frisch. 5th edition, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1974, pp. 23-29 (= Friedrichs Dramatiker des Welttheater , Volume 17), DNB 750345667 ; Paperback edition: dtv 6817, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-423-06817-5 .
  • Walter Schmitz : Max Frisch: The Work (1931–1961) . Studies on tradition and processing traditions. Peter Lang, Bern 1985, ISBN 3-261-05049-7 , pp. 149-157.
  • Wilhelm Ziskoven: "Now they are singing again". Attempt at a requiem . In: Albrecht Schau (Hrsg.): Max Frisch - Contributions to an impact history . Becksmann, Freiburg im Breisgau 1971, pp. 198-210 DNB 720019516 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Urs Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 . Limmat, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-85791-286-3 , pp. 129-130.
  2. ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold : Conversations with writers . Beck, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-406-04934-6 , p. 23.
  3. ↑ Volker Hage : Max Frisch . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1997, ISBN 3-499-50616-5 , p. 37.
  4. ↑ Urs Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 , p. 138.
  5. ↑ Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max fresh . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-518-39734-6 , p. 19.
  6. ^ Max Frisch: Diary 1946–1949 . In: Collected works in chronological order. Second volume , p. 589.
  7. ↑ Hellmuth Karasek: Max Frisch , p. 100.
  8. ↑ Max Frisch: Collected works in chronological order. Second volume , p. 760.
  9. ↑ Max Frisch: Santa Cruz. A romance. Now they are singing again. Attempt at a requiem . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1962, p. 133.
  10. ↑ Max Frisch: To Now they are singing again . In: Collected works in chronological order. Second volume. P. 137.
  11. ↑ Urs Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 , p. 141.
  12. ↑ Elisabeth Brock-Sulzer on Now they sing again . In: Schweizer Monatshefte , April 1945. Reprinted in: Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max frisch , p. 14.
  13. ↑ Quotation from: Sonja Rüegg: I don't hate Switzerland, I hate mendacity. The image of Switzerland in Max Frisch's works “Graf Öderland”, “Stiller” and “achtung: die Schweiz” and its contemporary criticism . Chronos, Zurich 1998, ISBN 978-3-905312-72-0 , p. 421.
  14. ↑ Caesar von Arx : Letters to the father . Edited by Armin Arnold. Lang, Bern 1982, ISBN 3-261-05000-4 , p. 39.
  15. ↑ EH: Now they are singing again . In: Sie und Er from April 13, 1945. Reprinted in: Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max frisch , p. 15.
  16. ↑ Quotations from: Urs Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 , pp. 141–142.
  17. ↑ Urs Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 , pp. 143–146.
  18. ↑ Ernst Bieri : Damn or Forgive? In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of May 23, 1945. Reprinted in: Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max frisch , p. 16.
  19. ↑ Max Frisch: Condemn or Forgive? A letter to Bi, the author of the leading article in the NZZ on May 23, 1945 . In: Neue Schweizer Rundschau June 1945. Reprinted in: Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max frisch , pp. 16–20.
  20. ↑ Max Frisch sounds the alarm . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1948, pp. 22 ( online ).
  21. ↑ Lioba Waleczek: Max Frisch . Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-423-31045-6 , pp. 64–65.
  22. ↑ Volker Hage : Max Frisch . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 3-499-50616-5 , p. 38.
  23. ↑ Erich Kästner: An important piece . In: Der Spiegel . No. 2 , 1947, p. 17 ( online ).
  24. ↑ Max Frisch: Draft of a letter . In: Diary 1946–1949 . Collected works in chronological order . Second volume, p. 471.
  25. ↑ Urs Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 , pp. 142, 262.
  26. ↑ Now they sing again in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  27. ↑ Momos: In sackcloth and ashes . In: The time of November 26, 1965.