Joke, satire, irony and deeper meaning

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Data
Title: Joke, satire, irony and deeper meaning
Genus: comedy
Original language: German
Author: Christian Dietrich Grabbe
Publishing year: 1827
Premiere: 1907
Place of premiere: Intimate theater for dramatic experiments , Munich

Jokes, satire, irony and deeper meaning is a play by Christian Dietrich Grabbe and one of the great German comedies . Grabbe completed the play in 1822 after his dark, nihilistic tragedy Duke Theodor von Gothland and described it himself as Gothland's comedic counterpart . The piece mixes numerous elements of the classic comedy : posse , commedia dell'arte , caustic literary and social satire and comic nonsense. Grabbe himself did not see the play be staged; it was not until 1876, the 40th year of his death, that his first private production took place at the Akademietheater in Vienna. In 1907 the official world premiere followed in an adaptation by Max Halbe on his stage “ Intimate Theater for Dramatic Experiments ” in Munich.

Table of contents

Because hell is being cleaned, the devil came to earth, where he freezes to death despite the hot summer weather. Four natural historians discover the hooded bundle and drag it to the castle of the Baron von Haldungen. While the puzzling find is being disputed (“The devil doesn't fit into our system”), the prince of hell comes to and looks for warmth in the fireplace. With the intention of inciting confusion and evil, he buys the baron's niece, the pretty, bright Liddy, from her bridegroom Herr von Wernthal, who is only interested in the dowry, and promises it to the savage Freiherr von Mordax (“The Liddy is a splendid animal and I like it superbly! ... I want to marry her or stab her to death! ”), who has to murder twelve apprentice tailors and break one's ribs. Another applicant is the honest Mr. Mollfels, who has just returned from Italy, who because of his ugliness ("We have just pulled seven old women from the castle pond who jumped into the water at the sight of his face in horror") in vain for Liddys Favor asks.

When the devil has a new horseshoe fitted to his horse's foot, the blacksmith guesses who he is dealing with and confides in the mischievous schoolmaster who is devoted to alcohol. He has a man- high cage set up in the forest, in which he lays sixteen condoms (codons) as bait. The devil immediately falls into the trap, while Mr. Mollfels thwarted the intrigue of the Baron von Mordax. Liddy is rescued by force of arms, and the play finds a happy ending for everyone: The devil's grandmother, in the form of a young woman, accompanied by Emperor Nero, frees the devil (“The chafing in hell is over! […] His name is you coffee that is warming up again is already steaming on the table ”), and faithful Mr. Mollfels receives Liddy as his wife.

The numerous satirical swipes at contemporary literature, including Ernst von Houwald , Adolph Müllner , Theodor Hell (actually Karl G. Th. Winkler) or Wilhelm Blumenhagen , culminate in the self-deprecating appearance of the author himself (“Grabbe enters with a burning lantern . - The curtain falls "), before which the schoolmaster wants to lock the door:" That is the damned grave, or as one should actually call it, the dwarf crab, the author of this play! He's as stupid as a cow's foot, scolds all writers and is no good himself, has twisted legs, squinting eyes and a bland monkey face! "

meaning

In its dazzling mixture of drastic situation comedy, beat-up scenes, satire and grotesque , the piece stands just as much outside of the classical as the romantic comedy and, in its epic sequence of images and in its garishly desperate mood, is more reminiscent of the tragicomedies of JMR Lenz , with the love intrigue as central The action element corresponds to the conventional scheme of the Commedia dell'arte. Due to the literary satire that shaped the piece, such as the illusion breaking in the last scene, when Wernthal and Mordax flee into the orchestra pit and Grabbe himself appears, comparisons were always drawn with, for example, Ludwig Tieck's Der Puss in Boots . Grabbe goes beyond the reconciling perspective of romantic irony, his criticism of Biedermeier society becomes a caricature of a “wrong world” which, as the devil may state in a famous sentence, appears “as a mediocre comedy”, “which is a bearded, yellow-billed one Angel, who [...], if I'm not mistaken, is still sitting in prime, smeared up during his school holidays ”. The nobility as well as the petty bourgeoisie , the representatives of science and culture, succumb to hopeless ridicule . The devil uses Klopstock's Messiah as an “old, infallible little sleep aid”, the heroes of classical literature, from antiquity to German classical music, and their authors prefer to cavort in hell, and the fact that the governments “are still hesitating, finally a shock Executing poets because of their miserable poems ”is, in the eyes of Mr. Mollfels, a cruelty towards the audience.

With its wicked wit, its sarcasm and the "outwardly hilarious appearance" (as Grabbe wrote to Kettembeil in 1827 (?)) The play has lost little of its vigor and is one of the few non-classical comedies in German literature in the repertoire of the stage asserts. The rank of the work is undisputed in research, the interpretations differ with regard to the deeper meaning of the piece, to which one ascribes a partly nihilistic-desperate (B. v. Wiese, G. Kaiser), partly political-utopian basic statement (M. Schneider) or declared it to be a mere game (H. Kaiser).

Brief interpretation

On the one hand , the piece is a big joke that parodies the genre of the wedding and mistaken comedy - which is also the basis of today's soap operas . On the other hand, the play offers serious satirical attacks against journalists, teachers, craftsmen and farmers, high society and, time and again, especially against German literature. Grabbe is unsurpassed on this. The schoolmaster's parody, the criticism of journalism, of dusty science, hollow pathos, philistine morality and the stupid superficiality of female writers in particular, e.g. B. are likely to provoke disapproval from some even today. But it is no coincidence that the emancipated Liddy is the only intelligent, soulful, sensible and likeable figure in the piece. This is embedded in a nihilistic worldview:

"The world is nothing more than a mediocre comedy that a green-nosed angel, who, if I'm not mistaken, still sits in the prime, smeared it up during his school holidays."

It is out of joint because superficiality, greed for money, selfishness and narrow-mindedness rule. The traditional values ​​no longer work; new ones are not yet in sight. Ultimately, Grabbe is a bitter moralist who holds up a distorting mirror to his society and relentlessly caricatures its weaknesses - but never doggedly.

people

  • Baron von Haldungen
  • Liddy, his niece
  • Mr. von Wernthal, engaged to her
  • Baron of Mordax
  • Mr. Mollfels
  • Rat poison, a poet
  • The schoolmaster of the village
  • Tobies, a farmer
  • Gottliebchen, his son
  • Gretchen, the bailiff's maid
  • Konrad, a blacksmith
  • Four natural historians
  • The devil
  • The devil's grandmother
  • Emperor Nero, grandmother's servant
  • Grabbe, the author of the comedy
  • Thirteen apprentice tailors and other auxiliary persons

Expenses (selection)

  • Joke, satire, irony and deeper meaning. A comedy in three acts. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1872, (Reclam's Universal Library, No. 397).
  • Joke, satire, irony and deeper meaning! Comedy in three acts . With original woodcuts by Karl Thylmann , Kurt Wolff, Leipzig 1915.
  • Joke, satire, irony and deeper meaning. A comedy in three acts . With etchings by Friedrich Heubner . Drei Masken Verlag, Munich 1927.
  • Works and letters. Historical-critical complete edition in six volumes . Edited by the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen , edited by Alfred Bergmann , Vol. 1, Lechte, Emsdetten (Westf.) 1960, pp. 213–273 (text) and 568–622 (critical appendix).

Settings

Opera

The composer Detlev Glanert used the piece as the basis for his comic opera of the same name, which premiered in Halle in 2001. The libretto was written by Jörg W. Gronius .

Audio book

Web links