Winter ballad

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Winter Ballad is a tragedy in seven scenes by the German Nobel Prize winner for literature Gerhart Hauptmann , which was composed in the first half of 1916 and premiered on October 17, 1917 under Max Reinhardt in the Berlin Deutsches Theater with Helene Thimig as Elsalil and Paul Wegener as Archie. The author had dramatized Selma Lagerlöf's story Mr. Arnes Schatz from 1904 in blank verse .

The theme is a robbery in the rectory at Solberga near Marstrand in the Bohuslän province in late-winter Sweden of the 16th century.

Gerhart Hauptmann on a painting by Lovis Corinth from 1900

content

1

Winter night after a war on a lonely Swedish farm by the sound : the skipper Frederik is stuck; can not start the journey to the Scottish port of destination Leith with his galeas when the sea is frozen over . Survivors of a Scottish highland regiment - paid Swedish wages during the war mentioned - are bored waiting for an opportunity to go home. Meanwhile three of their captains, Lords Sir Archie, Sir Douglas and Sir Donald, have blackened their faces with soot and are sharpening their long knives.

2

In the rectory at Solberga, the celebration of the 90th birthday of Pastor Arne is being prepared that winter night. There is no celebration. The three Scottish noblemen break into the rectory, butcher the family and run away with the pastor's gold treasure on a horse-drawn sleigh. The almost forty-year-old Sir Archie stabbed Berghild, Pastor Arnesohn's daughter, and Sir Douglas killed Pastor Arne with a knife in the back.

3

The robbery and murder is investigated in the courtroom of the Bohus bailiff . Only the 60-year-old son Arnes survived the bloodbath - the pastor Arnesohn and the young Elsalil, niece of the grocer Torarin. Elsalil, the only eyewitness to the terrible human slaughter, has been silent since the night of the murder.

Arnesohn wants revenge for the murder of his daughter Berghild and his father Arne. The bailiff does not want to know anything about it, but is looking for the perpetrators. It is said that the murderers drowned while fleeing across the ice in the only ice hole far and wide. Arnesohn cannot believe that.

4th

Sir Archie, splendidly dressed in the uniform of the Scottish Colonel , appears in the general store of Torarins and is evidently not recognized by Elsalil, who lives in the uncle's household. Startled, Sir Archie thinks he recognizes his murder victim Berghild in Elsalil. He says to Elsalil: “Your name is Berghild. The old woman called you Berghild. You dead, ice-cold virgin who penetrated my sting, come closer to me so that I warm you. ”Elsalil claims:“ Berghild is my sister on the parish farm ”and lets herself be warmed. Elsalil has the language again and a shady love affair develops.

Elsalil's striking resemblance to Berghild irritates Archie and can be taken as the cause of the robbery's mental confusion that erupted and flared up at the end of the piece.

5

Next to the frozen galeas of the skipper Frederik on the ice of the sound: the shopkeeper Torarin doubts the death of the three murderers in the ice hole, because coins from the treasure of Arne's have come into circulation through Scottish soldiers.

The Lords Douglas and Donald, looking for a passage to their Scottish homeland, meet Archie at the galeas and advise the stray crony to kill Elsalil for safety reasons. Archie wants to kill anyone who attacks Elsalil. The two accomplices consider their brother in arms to be “crazy”.

Arnesohn, who is out for revenge, tries in vain to pursue the three murderers.

6th

Elsalil and Archie in Elsalil's little room in the house of the grocer Torarin: The couple are in love. When Elsalil bites the lord's hand heartily, the scene ends. The bleeding lover yells: “Cattle, have you turned out mad?” Elsalil, suddenly clairvoyant, recognizes Berghild's murderer. Archie wants to take the girl by force. He doesn't love Elsalil, but she could come to Scotland as his bride.

Arnesohn and the landlord Torarin come over - Archie has passed out. The two men ask Elselil about their woes. She is stubbornly silent.

Arnesohn, who knows the bailiff's delaying investigations, solves the case in his own way. He challenges Archie to a duel on the ice next to the galeas.

7th

The murderer Archie appears late for a duel. The now completely mentally confused and extremely excited, Elsalil has meanwhile beaten to death. Lord Archie collapses and dies. His two accomplices apparently escaped to Scotland with impunity.

More premieres

Adaptations

Opera

Radio plays

reception

  • October 1917, Rilke was among the audience at the dress rehearsal .
  • 1917, Jacobsohn condemned the piece as "weak".
  • November 1921 in the Lucerna Palace in Prague : Max Brod was impressed by the primal power of the reciter Gerhart Hauptmann.
  • 1952, Mayer: Selma Lagerlöf returned the favor; translated the piece into Swedish.
  • 1959, Wolfram Mauser : Gerhart Hauptmann's “Winter Ballade” : 15-page pdf special print from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg
  • 1995 Leppmann calls the piece a sequence of magical - archaic atmospheric images.
  • 1998, Marx: Gerhart Hauptmann turned Selma Lagerlöf's crime story into a kind of psychoanalysis of the Lord Archie case. By introducing the three perpetrators at the beginning, Hauptmann puts the emphasis on investigations into the question: How did the dying Archie get his life-despising exclamation “No! No!"?
  • 2012, Sprengel: By presenting innocent victims and ruthless murderers, Gerhart Hauptmann tortures the audience.

literature

Book editions

First edition:
  • Winter ballad. A dramatic poetry. S. Fischer, Berlin 1917, DNB 36146956X , OCLC 640018 (first edition, 180 pages, printed in Fraktur ).
  • Winter ballad. Tragedy. P. 287–386 in Gerhart Hauptmann: Selected dramas in four volumes. Volume 3: Aufbau, Berlin 1952, OCLC 313195733 (edition used).

Secondary literature

  • Gerhart Hauptmann: Selected dramas in four volumes . Volume 1, with an introduction to the dramatic work of Gerhart Hauptmann by Hans Mayer . Structure, Berlin 1952, OCLC 313195641 .
  • Wolfgang Leppmann : Gerhart Hauptmann. Eine Biographie (= Ullstein-Buch , Volume 35608: Biographie ), Ullstein, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-548-35608-7 (identical to: Propylaen, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-549-05469-6 ; Subtitle: Die Biographie ) .
  • Friedhelm Marx : Gerhart Hauptmann (= RUB 17608, series: Literature Studies ). Reclam, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-15-017608-5 .
  • Peter Sprengel: Gerhart Hauptmann. Bourgeoisie and big dream. A biography. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-64045-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marx, p. 180, 11. Zvu
  2. ↑ Marx, p. 180, 10th Zvu
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 338, 15. Zvu
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 340, 10. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 361, 13. Zvo
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 384, 10th Zvu
  7. ^ Reference to a Viennese performance in 1930
  8. ↑ Entry on the premiere in Stuttgart in 1932
  9. ↑ Entry on the Zittau premiere in 2012
  10. ^ Sprengel, p. 504 below
  11. ^ Sprengel, p. 506 above
  12. ^ Sprengel, p. 550 below
  13. ↑ Mayer, p. 69 middle
  14. ↑ Leppmann, p. 309, 16. Zvo
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 386, 11. Zvo
  16. ↑ Marx, p. 184 above
  17. ^ Sprengel, p. 471 middle