Switzerland without an army? A palaver

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Switzerland without an army? A palaver . Title of the 1992 Suhrkamp edition.

Switzerland without an army? A Palaver is a prose text in dialogue form by the Swiss writer Max Frisch from 1989. It was edited for the stage under the title Jonas and his Veteran and premiered on October 19, 1989 at the Zurich Schauspielhaus under the direction of Benno Besson . Its prose was the occasion of the Group for a Switzerland without an army brought about popular initiative to abolish the Swiss army . In the form of a palaver between a nameless grandfather, who is provided with details from Frisch's own biography, and his grandson Jonas the sense and nonsense of the Swiss Army, the state and future of Swiss society and the prospects of the referendum are discussed.

Frisch sat with Switzerland without an army? continues his critical examination of Switzerland and its historical special position in numerous texts. He again addressed his own military service as a gunner during the Second World War , which in the papers from the bread sack he had faced largely patriotic and non-critical, while he had revised this attitude in the later review in the service booklet . Although Frisch's last extensive text was rated as of little literary importance and the stage adaptation was received with skepticism by the theater critics, did Switzerland become without an army? to the political issue in his home country. Frisch once again moved into the focus of public debates that revolved around himself as well as the performance of the play and the film Palaver, Palaver that accompanied it .

content

The Swiss Army as an object of tradition: the cavalry squadron's 1972 parade in uniforms from 1972

Jonas visits his grandfather. He reports to him about the referendum on the abolition of the army. Grandfather thinks this news is a joke. In contrast to his grandson, although he was critical of the military and the prevailing conditions in Switzerland, he cannot imagine Switzerland without an army. The grandson pulls a book from the shelf that his grandfather once wrote and that he finds “casual”: Max Frisch's little service book . From this he quotes critical passages about the Swiss self-image and its army.

The grandfather tells of his own experiences during the Second World War in an artillery unit on Mutschellen . For him, the location of the Swiss Army is not on the outside, but on the inside. The cadres of Swiss society are identical to the cadres of their army. The referendum merely serves the belief that it is a democracy that is protected by the army. Then he declaims Gottfried Benn , Bertolt Brecht and Ingeborg Bachmann . He lists five reasons why the army is indispensable for Switzerland: The army is used as a “school of life”, as a “school of man”, as a “school of the nation”, as the “bodyguard” of the ruling “ plutocracy ” as well as a custom for the Swiss self-confidence that one has a military like everyone else.

The old values ​​his grandfather insists on are alien to Jonas. He is interested in computer science and wants to study in California . He just feels annoyed by patriotism , including that of his grandfather. From his point of view, you only learn one thing in the army: crawling. Instead, he would like to do community service in Switzerland. The referendum is important to him as a call for a future peace policy . But in the end he can't get his grandfather to vote. He argues that he is always in the minority at the polls. By staying away from the vote, he becomes part of the majority. After Jonas left, the grandfather, who was left behind, quotes the conclusion of the little service book : he did not dare to think what was conceivable; he wanted to believe rather than know. He throws the book into the fire and sums it up: you're pretty cowardly.

shape

Switzerland without an army? is built up as a pure dialogue between Jonas and his grandfather. The mostly single-line narrative sprinkles are reminiscent of stage directions for a play in their short, sober descriptions. Passages from Frisch's service booklet are mounted in italics in the text . In 26 longer notes , Frisch comments on the dialogue and provides background information on names or facts.

Jürgen H. Petersen assessed that the text was more reminiscent of a feature than a drama , "obviously does not follow any aesthetic concept, does not make any poetic claims and is difficult to understand as a fictional text." The plot leaves room for only a few playful elements, like lighting the fireplace or drinking a bottle of wine. The focus is on the clearly critical alignment of the text. A coherent figure constellation is dispensed with, since both dialogue partners are basically of the same opinion. The grandfather's objections to maintaining the army seemed like a mock irony that the dialogue would become a monologue , a “ pamphlet with roles assigned”.

interpretation

In the dialogue between Jonas and his grandfather, Max Frisch, following Walter Schmitz , the co-editor of his collected works , took up the poetics of questioning from his second diary 1966–1971 , there, among other things, in repeated questionnaires to the reader. The question “Are you sure?” Was a key question even then. The dialogue between grandchildren and grandfather is only apparently private; in fact, Frisch creates a public sphere with the conversation between generations. Frisch himself, the old, famous writer, is answering the questions of a younger generation. The dialogue would be a Socratic dialogue with an educational purpose. With the private conversation made public, Frisch postulates a political existence that does not separate private and public life. A “different Switzerland”, a “living and future Switzerland” would only be possible through the political existence of the citizens.

According to Schmitz, Frisch's criticism of Switzerland is also based on a criticism of language: "In addition, not all of us mean the same Switzerland ..." In Andorra , Frisch had already addressed the definition of reality by the Andorrans in a model of Switzerland. Even in Switzerland without an army? for many citizens it is certain what “a real Swiss does not do”. In his text, Frisch wanted to oppose the official public language, which defines reality using fixed templates, with an open, lively dialogue. To do this, he uses questions as well as the alienated use of quotations, which therefore calls into question their content.

The final scene was interpreted as the burning of the Swiss service log.

The final gesture of the grandfather, who "lightly" throws his former service book into the fire, has been interpreted in different ways: First, Frisch actually burn his Swiss service book , the Swiss Army ID, in a gesture like some US Americans give their draft order Vietnam War demonstratively burned. Second, Frisch finally saw in a gesture of resignation the insignificance of what was once written for a young generation. Third, Frisch proclaimed the revision of the text at the time, which had lost its relevance and had to be adapted to the current truth.

Walter Schmitz also saw the fire as a symbol of transience, an image that runs through Frisch's work. The story goes beyond the grandfather's lifetime. Not he is the actual main character of the game, but Jonas, whose name refers to the Swiss film Jonas, which will be 25 years old in 2000 . He stands for the future that will happen without the grandfather. In the end, the grandfather burns his experience and thus robs it of general validity. He does not give it to the future generation as an answer, but as a question and thus enables the continuation of the process of enlightenment as an ongoing palaver, a conversation without fixed certainties.

History of origin

Max Frisch (approx. 1974)

After the publication of his last short story Bluebeard in 1982, Frisch had largely given up his writing activity. In the 1985 speech at the Solothurn Literature Days At the End of the Enlightenment stands the Golden Calf , he announced that he “had stopped writing. Tired, yes. Consumed. ”Even in Switzerland without an army? Frisch had the grandson ask: “Is it true, grandfather, that you don't write anything anymore. Except for letters. I mean: no novels and such, no diary? "In the figure of the grandfather, Frisch replied:" That has been true for years. "

When the Swiss Without Army Group was formed in the mid-1980s , an initiative with the aim of abolishing the Swiss Army, which achieved a referendum on its request scheduled for November 26, 1989, Frisch was initially skeptical about the matter. Although he had been a critic of Swiss politics and its army for years, he feared that the initiative would suffer a serious loss in the vote, which would have put the army critics on the defensive in the long term. It was only when he became aware of the growing approval that the initiative was enjoying, especially among the younger generation, that Frisch changed his mind. He broke his literary abstinence and wrote Switzerland without an army? A palaver settled in a few weeks in February and March 1989. However, Frisch revised the text in some places after the first edition, for example in the reasons that, from the grandfather's point of view, speak in favor of the Swiss army, as in his statement that he had not been writing for a long time. Frisch dedicated his book to the enlighteners Denis Diderot and Ulrich Bräker "in gratitude".

reception

Switzerland without an army? When it appeared in the summer of 1989, a palaver aroused great interest from the Swiss population. The first edition of the book edition in the four Swiss national languages ​​was sold out within a few days. The Swiss press also addressed Frisch's new work and mostly focused on the domestic political debate in connection with the popular initiative to abolish the army. For the SonntagsBlick , Max Frisch left no doubts as to how he stood in relation to the army. The “anger” brought Frisch “to break his silence, to write again.” In the Tages-Anzeiger , Stefan Howald saw the text as a “gesture of decisive age radicalism” as well as a “compendium of solid anti-army arguments”. In the weekly newspaper, Stefan Keller found "a completely resigned Max Frisch" to stage himself. Nevertheless, in the end a utopia takes shape "by listing all that is wrong." For the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Frisch's text went beyond the initiative for the abolition of the army. He expresses an "overall criticism, and not only of the Swiss situation", but was "designed in such a way that the presumed outcome of the vote will prove him right."

The literary assessments of Frisch's prose text remained more restrained. Jürgen H. Petersen saw Switzerland without an army? a “text that can hardly be described as poetic”, which “hardly counts among the literarily weighty works of Max Frisch”. Instead, he documents "the drying up of the literary strength of its author". In the text, Volker Hage discovered “the fine barbs”, “the unobtrusive power of questioning” and he judged that it was “Frisch's art to hold this little dialogue in the balance as if unintentionally. Pauses and digressions are more eloquent than what the two of them speak to each other, and small nuances, tiny shifts say more than any wisdom. "

The theater in Zurich. Jonas and his veteran premiered here on October 19, 1989 .

In collaboration with Max Frisch, Benno Besson adapted Switzerland without an army? under the title Jonas and his veteran for the stage and took over the deliberately simple staging himself, which was premiered on October 19, 1989 in the Schauspielhaus Zurich . The French version , which was co-produced with the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne , premiered on October 20, also in Zurich . A week later, the ensembles performed in reverse order in Lausanne. The French version was played there on October 24th and the German version on October 25th.

The premiere, which Max Frisch attended in the auditorium, was celebrated with ovations. However, it found a skeptical reception in the theater criticism. For Reinhard Baumgart, "everything was played neatly and assiduously, as if from a sheet of paper" without the text finding life. The staging reduces it "to its raw content, the theater for scenic reading , the cat-and-mouse game between veteran and grandson to a political talk show for two people." Nevertheless, the audience celebrated Frisch at the end "for his courage to confess" . In the German-language world premiere, Jürgen Cziesla played as grandfather and Marcus Kaloff as Jonas. Peter Bollag as prompter spoke the book's comments. Paul Darzac , Mathieu Delmonté and Jean-Charles Fontana played in the French-language premiere .

Former Federal Councilor Rudolf Friedrich criticized the piece harshly and accused Frisch of allowing himself to be captured.

The performance of Jonas and his veteran had to overcome considerable hurdles in advance . Although the director of the Zurich theater Achim Benning supported the production, parts of the board of directors tried to prevent the performance because it would be “improper political interference by the theater in the voting campaign” of the GSoA initiative. Frisch commented on the quarrels with the statement: “You will learn how the freedom of art works with us. We do n't need censorship . ”As a result of the theatrical performances, there were disputes with supporters of the army, which were also reflected in anonymous phone calls and smear letters against Max Frisch. In a public discussion after a performance, former Federal Councilor Rudolf Friedrich vigorously criticized the play and its author: “ Jonas and his veteran [...] is rich in words, but it is just as shallow chat. It is polemics , suspicion, rumor, ridicule, sarcasm and banal primitiveness. An old, worn-out, tired and resigned Max Frisch appears who has let himself be harnessed to a strange cart. A formerly great spirit has become a small one. His spiritual decline is demonstrated. Max Frisch is not factual, but he is mentally exhausted. "

The documentary Palaver, Palaver - a Swiss autumn chronicle by Alexander J. Seiler , which documented the genesis of Jonas and his veteran and related it to the voting campaign in the run-up to the referendum, also had to struggle with resistance during its realization. The Zurich National Councilor Ernst Cincera suspected that “the aim is to support the initiators [of the referendum] in terms of content” and asked why the film was being financially supported by the Federal Office of Culture . The request was refused with reference to artistic freedom. The film was released in September 1990 after the referendum was over, a fact that Peter Bichsel welcomed, as the film documented and not agitated and had become “a representation of how we deal with politics, with the opposition, with a matter of course”. The Lexicon of the International Film commented: "Thanks to a subtle montage, the work, which is complex thanks to its subtle montage, documents a democratic and artistic process and conveys the political climate in a Switzerland that has been set in motion by public discourse on a question that was previously considered taboo."

On November 26, 1989, 35.6% of the voters, over a million voters, voted for the abolition of the army. The result meant a “huge surprise” for the originally skeptical Frisch. Most recently, he had intervened in the election campaign himself and on November 20 gave a speech in the Basel Theater entitled Peace contradicts our society , in which he already rated the fact that the army had been discussed as a political success . On a voting poster designed by his friend Gottfried Honegger and financed by Frisch, he added a subsequent dialogue to his original prose text: the grandson's question, "How will you vote, grandfather?" he now answered with a capitalized "Yes".

Walter Schmitz drew the conclusion that Frisch had no army in Switzerland? “Quite unpretentiously, without a lively gesture, shown how the individual should contribute to the formation of public opinion in a democratic process with his insight: With careful, 'uncertain' examination of the arguments; with a sense of possibility and memory; in the awareness of subjectivity, partiality and the existential obligation of one's own truth ", the whole thing" under the horizon of utopian hope. "

literature

Text output

  • Max Frisch: Switzerland without an army? A palaver . Limmat, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-85791-153-0 (first edition).
  • Suisse sans armée? Un palabre (translated by Benno Besson and Yvette Z'Graggen ). Campiche, Yvonand 1989, ISBN 2-88241-012-3 (French).
  • Svizzera senza esercito? Una chiacchierata rituale (translated by Danilo Bianchi), Casagrande, Bellinzona 1989, ISBN 88-7713-017-2 (Italian).
  • Max Frisch: Switzerland without an army? A palaver . Suhrkamp-TB 1881, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-518-38381-7 .

Secondary literature

  • Volker Hage: Max Frisch . rororo 50616, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-499-50616-5 , pp. 94-97.
  • Jürgen H. Petersen: Max Frisch . Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-13173-4 , pp. 180-182.
  • Walter Schmitz : Max Frisch's “Palaver” Switzerland without an army? Or public and lack of understanding . In: Daniel de Vin (Ed.): I like life. Encounter with Max Frisch . Literary meeting point, Brussels 1992, ISBN 90-6828-003-1 , pp. 59–80.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Petersen: Max Frisch , pp. 181-182.
  2. ↑ Frisch: Switzerland without an army? Ein Palaver (1992), p. 7.
  3. ↑ Frisch: Switzerland without an army? Ein Palaver (1992), p. 53.
  4. ↑ See Schmitz: Max Frisch's “Palaver” Switzerland without an Army ?, pp. 59–61.
  5. ↑ Frisch: Switzerland without an army? Ein Palaver (1992), pp. 33-34.
  6. ↑ Frisch: Switzerland without an army? Ein Palaver (1992), p. 12.
  7. ↑ See Schmitz: Max Frisch's “Palaver” Switzerland without an Army ?, pp. 64–66.
  8. ↑ Frisch: Switzerland without an army? Ein Palaver (1992), p. 59.
  9. ↑ See Schmitz: Max Frisch's “Palaver” Switzerland without an Army ?, p. 70.
  10. ↑ See Schmitz: Max Frisch's “Palaver” Switzerland without an Army ?, pp. 79–80.
  11. ↑ Urs Bircher: With the exception of friendship: Max Frisch 1956–1991 . Limmat, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-85791-297-9 , p. 227.
  12. ↑ Frisch: Switzerland without an army? Ein Palaver (1992), p. 30.
  13. ↑ See the section: Bircher: With the exception of friendship: Max Frisch 1956–1991 , p. 230.
  14. ↑ Schmitz: Max Frisch's “Palaver” Switzerland without an Army ?, pp. 61, 72.
  15. ↑ Frisch: Switzerland without an army? Ein Palaver (1992), p. 6.
  16. ↑ Hage: Max Frisch , p. 94.
  17. ↑ The Defenders of the Marmots . In: SonntagsBlick . June 11, 1989.
  18. ↑ Stefan Howald: A palaver with a decided end . In: Tages-Anzeiger . June 13, 1989.
  19. ↑ Stefan Keller : Now let's be comfortable! In: The weekly newspaper . June 16, 1989.
  20. ↑ Army in the Palaver. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . June 17th and 18th.
  21. ↑ Petersen: Max Frisch , pp. 180, 182.
  22. ↑ Hage: Max Frisch , p. 95.
  23. ↑ a b Bircher: With the exception of friendship: Max Frisch 1956–1991 , p. 232.
  24. ↑ René Ammann: Balance acts on the high wire of the Pfauenbühne . Achim Benning. In: SonntagsZeitung of September 24, 1989.
  25. ^ Benno Besson : Years with Brecht. Edited by Christa Neubert-Herwig. Theaterkultur-Verlag, Willisau 1990, ISBN 3-908145-17-1 , pp. 223-224.
  26. ↑ Hage: Max Frisch , p. 96.
  27. ↑ Reinhard Baumgart : Just a political talk show? In: Die Zeit of October 26, 1989.
  28. ↑ Bircher: With the exception of friendship: Max Frisch 1956–1991 , p. 264.
  29. ↑ Urs Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 . Limmat, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-85791-286-3 , pp. 14-15.
  30. ↑ Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 , pp. 15–16.
  31. ↑ Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max fresh . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-518-39734-6 , p. 299 and financial support for a film project , simple request from October 5, 1989 (digitized version from the Swiss Federal Archives )
  32. ↑ Peter Bichsel : We are the general weather situation . In: Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max frisch , pp. 303–305.
  33. ^ Palaver, Palaver in the Lexicon of International Films .
  34. ↑ Bircher: From the slow growth of an anger: Max Frisch 1911–1955 , p. 16.
  35. ↑ Hage: Max Frisch , pp. 96-97.
  36. ↑ Schmitz: Max Frisch's “Palaver” Switzerland without an Army ?, p. 80.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on December 16, 2009 in this version .