Stay, wanderer
Linger, Wanderer is a radio play by Günter Eich , which was broadcast on Sunday, November 18, 1951 - according to today's convention, the day of national mourning - by the SDR under the direction of Paul Land .
content
In this memento mori four dead are remembered. While reading each of the four funerary inscriptions, the wanderer who lingers is urged to prayer and reflection.
The farmer Lena - actually Magdalena Maria Josefa Brenninger (born March 14, 1800 - † August 5, 1875) - knows that her beloved husband Christian of the same age must have died on July 10, 1855 in Singapore . He had been a drifter who wanted to make his fortune everywhere and nowhere. Vain! Well, shortly before her death, Lena thinks that her lover will come after thirty years of absence and take her out into the big wide world. Lena, who is in dialogue with her husband, who is not present, agrees with each of his orders from the outset. She only wants to be with her loved one - that's all. So she wants to leave the house, farm and children at Christian's side.
A stranger died in the inn on June 12, 1831 after being touched by the blow on the way . The grateful congregation was able to use the bequest of the single wealthy traveler to repair the church roof and build a school. When the extra mail arrived , the doctor was called to see the stranger. The medic had no hope for the dying man. Three days' journey away from home, the stranger feels left alone in the inn bed. Nobody waits for him at home. So he wants to buy charity from the maidservant and the house servant. The rich is rejected by the two poor. But the maid wants to pray for the dying man.
The maid Hilde Hohmann (born January 5, 1820, † October 19, 1851) had no luck in life. The single owner of a modest general store longs for her prince. It won't come. But Franz - who recently sat in jail because of a robbery - plays the new customer, sneaks into Hilde and kills her because of her supposed money.
The composer Ferdinand Brunn (* September 5, 1824, † July 18, 1887) has withdrawn from wife Sabine, children Christoph and Thea and the world. The unfortunate musician lives impoverished under the false name of Mr. Martin in the old peat house, a little away from a lonely farming village. For decades, the composer has been looking for that music "that no human mouth can sing, ... that does not sound on any string, that does not reach any key or handle". The Kapellmeister, who knows the mediocre works of Mr. Martin, is the only one who gets to the hidden turf house after forty years. The uninvited visitor asks the musician to throw all bad music manuscripts into the fire. The life's work - piles of paper - burns like tinder. The fire spreads to the peat house. Mr. Martin dies in the flames. The musician had previously suspected that the visitor was an angel. The visitor had confirmed and relativized this, he also incarnated the life and death of the hermit. A sheet of paper with a few bars remained: the “song without words”. Herr Martin had hoped that at least one leaf would be left over from him. The visitor has to disappoint him: Perhaps the melody on the sheet will one day fly to someone else and thus be passed on under a strange name. Herr Martin had had one consolation in dying. Goodness had shone in the eyes of the angel who had led him to death.
Productions
- 18th November 1951, SDR, directed by Paul Land. It spoke Elsa Pfeiffer Lena, Walter Kottenkamp the Christian, Hans Mahnke foreign guest, Marianne Simon the maid, Max Weber's servant, Edith Heerdegen Hilde Hohmann, Harald Baender the murderer Franz Theodor Loos the musician Martin and Kurt hair visitors .
- Nov. 2, 1954, SWF
- October 23, 1965, ORF Tirol.
reception
- Wagner gives an advance notice of the radio play from the radio courier for the week of the first broadcast. It says: “How death is represented in human behavior and becomes a revelation of life ... whereby death itself ... remains an unspoken phenomenon, a negative gesture ... of life ... “Furthermore, Wagner refers to the discussion of“ Illusion of Life and Reality ”in the“ Evangelical Press Service / Church and Radio ”on December 3, 1951.
- Piontek, who consistently praises Günter Eich's extensive radio play in his contribution, complains - wrapped in cotton wool: The author has given the piece "not the" otherwise predominant "urgency".
literature
Used edition
- Günter Eich: Stay, Wanderer (1951) . S. 553-581 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 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
- 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)