Under the pear tree (Günter Eich)
Unterm Birnbaum is a radio play by Günter Eich based on Theodor Fontane 's novel of the same name . The original broadcast in the hr took place on September 3, 1951 under the direction of Fränze Roloff .
content
A Küstriner judiciary arrested the innkeeper Hradschek on suspicion of murder. The law enforcement officer wants to investigate the disappearance of Mr. Szulski. This missing gentleman visited the innkeeper Hradschek on November 28, 1831 on behalf of the Kraków wine shop Olszewski, Goldschmidt & Sohn at the place of the deal, an inn in a village near the Oder . The traveller's horse and carriage had been found in the Oder the next day. Among other things, the house servant Jakob is interrogated by the judiciary. Jakob had received a tip from Mr. Szulski, who was leaving early in the morning. The conditions of the departure had struck the servant as strange. Szulski had remained silent, looked smaller than usual and was hooded. The 43-year-old Ms. Ursel Hradschek was seen by the night watchman Mewissen that morning near the scene of the accident. She denies Mewissen's claim to the judicial council. Old Alwine Jeschke, a neighbor of Hradschek, reports that the landlord buried something like a corpse under his pear tree that night. The Council of Justice lets dig. But the gravedigger only unearths the remains of a French man from 1813. Hradschek, who has only lived in the village since 1821, has to be released from the Küstrin prison.
Hradschek only wanted to bury rotten bacon.
The Hradschek couple killed Mr. Szulski out of greed. But only the listener knows that. The landlord, Hradschek, makes his regular guests believe that the money for the expansion of the inn comes from an inheritance from his wife. The woman can't hold out nervously and dies. Before that she hallucinates ; meets a Mr. Szulski, who ironically and sarcastically reminds her of his murder by the innkeeper couple: The innkeeper had killed the guest - probably with a hammer. The landlady had transported his body with horse and carriage to the Oder. Hradschek lives about another six months: he laughs at Fräulein Editha in Berlin and wants to marry her. Then the late accomplice appears to him in a dream and admonishes the widower that before the wedding, the body of Mr. Szulski should be dug up in the cellar of the inn and carried away. The landlord obeys terribly and dies in the action.
shape
The piece can be heard as a radio play version of Fontane 's novel of the same name . Creepy and uncanny - the dead Mr. Szulski appears to both the murderer and his wife - makes the play more than an ordinary, flat detective radio play.
The radio play is also the homeland poetry of the Lebuser Günter Eich. He precedes the piece Oder, my river - a poem in praise of the dear homeland.
Self-testimony
Günter Eich calls the radio play "a crime story with horror and ghost effects", in which the murderous couple go down in the "darkness of a bad conscience".
Productions
- September 3, 1951 in the hr, director: Fränze Roloff, music: Winfried Zillig , Fritz Rémond den Hradschek, Edith Heerdegen his wife, Arthur Reynolds-Mainzer the judiciary, Hans Martin Koettenich the Mr. Szulski, Walter Dennechaud the Jakob, Lars Doddenhof spoke the gravedigger, Lotte Kleinschmidt the Jeschke, and Else Knott the Editha.
- April 14, 1956 on NDR
- January 23, 1962 on BR and NDR
- January 13, 1967 on ORF Tirol.
reception
- The review “Conscience as the main actor” appeared on September 10, 1951 in the “ Evangelical Press Service / Church and Radio ”.
literature
Used edition
- Günter Eich: Under the pear tree. After Theodor Fontane (1951) . P. 513–551 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
- 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)
Web links
- April 2, 1977: Reinhard Döhl On Günter Eich's “Unterm Birnbaum. After Theodor Fontane ”.