Sabeth

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Sabeth is a radio play by Günter Eich , which was broadcast on June 14, 1951 by SDR under the direction of Erich Köhler.

content

The teacher Fräulein Therese Weisinger faints when she sees the human-sized raven that her nine-year-old student Elisabeth Fortner told her about. From her place of employment, the farming village of Reiskirchen, the teacher had made the long way to the very remote Fortners' homestead to examine Elisabeth's apparent fantasy lie.

According to Elisabeth's mother, the raven could be the devil on the one hand . On the other hand, the little Fortner family was happy with the raven. This strange happiness was suspected by the servant and the maid in the desert. For example, the raven persuaded the farmer to plow the frost-hard field in February. Of course the flock broke . One day the Fortners took their piano into the forest and accompanied Elisabeth's playing with her singing. The servants wanted nothing to do with the incarnate and fled their duties. From then on, the clever raven worked as a farmhand on the Fortnerhof. Elisabeth relates that the raven once took her on his flight and allowed her a look at the “blinding darkness”. Elisabeth means the blue, dark eternity. The girl teaches the raven to speak; tell him her name first. The bird repeats "Sabeth" and is named.

Sabeth gets to know fear through language and admires people who can love. With the language, Sabeth becomes aware of his knowledge, his forgetting and the certainty that he must one day die. He would like to hide his grief over this from Elisabeth. The raven is troubled by his increasing power of speech. The bird has been cast out from its own and ponders the cause. Human language could be to blame.

When Therese Weisinger received news of Sabeth's death, she went to the Fortnerhof. There is no corpse.

shape

In the narrative radio play, the teacher, the farmer and her daughter introduce the chapters. Jens speaks of parallel monologues as a formal element.

The game can be heard under the motto "Elisabeth Fortner's encounters with the clever raven Sabeth". But also the point of view "The miss teacher is fishing for a man" is possible. Günter Eich cleverly hid the latter aspect in the course of the monologues / dialogues: The teacher is initially unmarried because she is addressed as Miss. Therese Weisinger is distressed when her headmaster Eginhard Woturba jokes with the village grocer's maid every now and then. The young lady soon took her superior - concerning the linguistically gifted big raven - into her confidence. It works. Headmaster Woturba accompanies the miss teacher to the Fortnerhof and photographs the raven. On the way home from the photography session, she hooks up with the leader. Woturba addresses her by her first name. Finally the teacher admits her unexpected marital happiness.

Self-testimony

On April 11, 1951, the author comments on his work:

  • Günter Eich wonders what he meant by the raven: A symbol, an angel or a memory of a pre-human existence? He saw him. It doesn't exist. Günter Eich firmly believes in his existence.
  • When asked what kind of creature the raven is, Günter Eich replies that the headmaster Woturba’s knowledge does not have to be correct. The listener might find a better explanation. But it could also be that such a search is unimportant.

Productions

reception

In a review, the radio play was jokingly dubbed “Kapitel Heidegger ”. It is about nothing less than being , time and eternity . Sabeth, a huge raven, comes from the latter to little Elisabeth. In the “fairytale sound play” the listener experiences a balancing act between transcendence and immanence ; in the case of the Sabeth-Elisabeth "dialogue", a back and forth between silence and speaking.

  • According to Schwitzke, the teacher reports on her “ metaphysical experience”. The raven opens up a world full of wonders for little Elisabeth, which one can penetrate without language. Günter Eich explores the limits of language for the first time in the audio piece.
  • Piontek calls "Sabeth" a masterpiece that is difficult to fathom. He sees in the raven both a magical symbol, the encounter of the sensual with the supersensible, and the highlighting of the myth.
  • Oppermann postulates poetry in relation to the Elisabeth-Sabeth-Dialogue as something like a reminder of things that modern people have lost. What is meant is a "part of eternity". The poet's fiasco: The memory of a mythological original text once possessed would no longer succeed.
  • With the raven Sabeth a creature appears whose work is metaphysical. The deeper a being - here Sabeth - penetrates into language, the less it learns about eternity. Of all people, a child - here Elisabeth - would come closest to eternity. Sabeth, at first still in a state of speechlessness, is in contact with the omnipresent eternity, unrecognized by adults, and is neither bound to space nor time. Sabeth experiences love as a strong, new force that lets him seek closeness to people.
  • Buchheit goes into the name game Eli-sabeth. Eli is one of the names of God.
  • After lousy people live, so to speak, in an “empirical time” that allows a prospect of eternity at most for a moment. Quite a few interpreters called Sabeth a " cipher of eternity". Miesen calls "Sabeth" an "enigmatic" radio play.

literature

First edition

Günter Eich: dreams. Four games ( Don't go to El Kuwehd ! The tiger Yussuf . Sabeth. Dreams ). Library Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1953, 186 pages

Other issues

Audio book

Used edition

  • Günter Eich: Sabeth (1951) . P. 439–473 in: Karl Karst (Ed.): Günter Eich. The radio plays I. in: Collected works in four volumes. Revised edition. Volume II . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, without ISBN

Secondary literature

  • Heinz Schwitzke (Ed.): Reclam's radio play guide. With the collaboration of Franz Hiesel , Werner Klippert , Jürgen Tomm. Reclam, Stuttgart 1969, without ISBN, 671 pages
  • Heinz Piontek : Call and Enchantment. Günter Eich's radio play. (1955) pp. 112-122 in Susanne Müller-Hanpft (ed.): About Günter Eich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970 (edition suhrkamp 402), 158 pages, without ISBN
  • Walter Jens : Epilogue to Günter Eich's "The Girls from Viterbo". (1958) pp. 123–128 in Susanne Müller-Hanpft (Ed.): About Günter Eich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970 (edition suhrkamp 402), 158 pages, without ISBN
  • Michael Oppermann: Inner and outer reality in Günter Eich's radio play. Diss. University of Hamburg 1989, Reinhard Fischer publishing house, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88927-070-0
  • Sabine Alber: The place in free fall. Günter Eich's moles in the context of the entire work. Dissertation. Technische Universität Berlin 1992. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1992 (European university publications. Series I, German language and literature, vol. 1329), ISBN 3-631-45070-2
  • Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Günter Eich and the radio. Essay and documentation. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1999, ISBN 3-932981-46-4 (publications of the German Broadcasting Archive ; Vol. 27)
  • Sabine Buchheit: Forms and functions of literary communication in Günter Eich's work. Röhrig University Publishing House , St. Ingbert 2003, ISBN 3-86110-334-6 .
  • Conrad Miesen: Flames from the ashes. Essays on the work of Günter Eich. Wiesenburg Verlag, Schweinfurt 2003, ISBN 3-932497-83-X

Remarks

  1. ↑ The listener of this philosophical piece is not surprising: none of the photos, developed by Woturba in the darkroom at home, shows a raven, only the Fortners and the two teachers. The headmaster has an "explanation" ready. Sabeth lives on a different time continuum than we do. That sometimes overlaps with ours. Sabeth gave us signs that we unfortunately do not understand. (Edition used, p. 469, 7th Zvu to p. 470)
  2. ↑ Günter Eich alludes to Woturba's assumption that there was no time for Sabeth according to human understanding. (Edition used, p. 470, 19. Zvo)
  3. ↑ Wagner cites a review from June 18, 1951 in the “ Evangelical Press Service / Church and Radio ” with the title “The ravens between being and time. One chapter of Heidegger in nine radio play chapters ”. (Wagner, p. 234, right column, 9th Zvu)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karst, p. 802, 18. Zvo
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 453, 3rd Zvo
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 453, 1. Zvo
  4. ↑ Buchheit, p. 58, 16. Zvu
  5. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 178, 16. Zvu
  6. ↑ Jens, p. 127, 16. Zvu
  7. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 178, 1. Zvu
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 473, 14. Zvo
  9. ↑ Günter Eich, quoted in Karst, p. 802, 12. Zvu
  10. ^ Günter Eich, quoted in Wagner, p. 234, right column, center
  11. ↑ Wagner, p. 233, left column, 15th Zvu
  12. ↑ Wagner, p. 275, left column, 18th Zvu
  13. ↑ Karst, p. 802, 5th Zvu
  14. ↑ Alber, p. 104, 7th Zvu
  15. ↑ Buchheit, p. 58, 8th Zvu
  16. ↑ Miesen, p. 70, 1st Zvu
  17. ↑ Buchheit, p. 58, 11. Zvu
  18. ↑ Schwitzke, pp. 178-189
  19. ^ Piontek, p. 121, 17th Zvu
  20. ↑ Oppermann, p. 112, 19. Zvo and p. 113 above
  21. ↑ Alber, pp. 104-106
  22. ↑ Buchheit, p. 59, footnote 210
  23. ^ Miesen, p. 71, 4th Zvu and p. 72, 17th Zvu
  24. ^ Miesen, p. 71, 2nd Zvo
  25. ^ Miesen, p. 70, 3rd Zvu