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Arnolt Bronnen's Vatermord and the German Youth of 1922

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Lynn Dierks
Lynn Dierks
Affiliation:
Candidate for the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama at Northwestern University, working on her dissertation, “Alternative Spectatorship in German Theatrical Expressionism.”
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Extract

As scholars investigating historical audiences, we are always searching for that magic moment when the theatre critic shifts in his seat, notices the people around him and finds them interesting enough to write down his observations. When such a moment occurs, we are given the rare opportunity to witness a spectatorial presence and spectatorial response not usually represented by theatre reviews. One such magic moment occurred on April 22, 1922, in Frankfurt, Germany at the premiere of Arnolt Bronnen's play Vatermord (Patricide). Carl Zuckmayer, a fellow playwright, drew his eyes away from the expressionist play before him and lifted them to the gallery. He recorded his experience in his review for Die Neue Schaubühne:

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , November 1998 , pp. 25 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1998

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References

ENDNOTES

1. Zuckmayer, Carl, “Uraufführung in Frankfurt: Vatermord,” Die Neue Schaubühne 4 (1922): 151.Google Scholar Where the cited text is in German, all translations are my own.

2. The survey data is presented in Peukert, Detlev, Jugend zwischen Krieg und Krise: Lebenswelten von Arbeiterjungend in der Weimarer Republik (Köln: Bund-Verlag, 1987), 202–209.Google Scholar

3. Bodek, Richard, “The Not-So Golden Twenties: Everyday Life and Communist Agitprop in Weimar-Era Berlin,” Journal of Social History 30, 1 (1996): 55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Mann, Golo, Reminiscences and Reflections: A Youth in Germany, trans. Winston, Krishna (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), 146.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., 137.

6. Peukert, Detlev, “Alltagsleben und Generationserfahrung von Jugendlichen in der Zwischenkriegszeit” in Jugendprotest und Generationenkonflikt in Europa im 20. Jahrhundert: Deutschland, England, Frankreich und Italien im Vergleich, ed. Dowe, Dieter (Bonn: Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, 1986), 139–150.Google Scholar See also Peukert's, Jugend zwischen Krieg und Krise and The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity, trans. Deveson, Richard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1989).Google Scholar

7. Of course, historians have pointed out the falsity of the notion of the “front generation” as indicating veterans who had experienced the horrors of trench warfare. As it entered into cultural significance, this concept came to include all those who were of the appropriate age but had not experienced life at the front. This raises many questions about the difference of women's or non-military men's experiences of the war and their perceived inclusion in or exclusion from the social construction of the front generation.

8. Peukert, , “Alltagsleben und Generationserfahrung,” 146.Google Scholar

9. Domansky, Elizabeth, “Politische Dimensionen von Jugendprotest und Generationenkonflikt in der Zwischenkriegzeit in Deutschland,” in Jugendprotest und Generationenkonflikt in Europa im 20. Jahrhundert: Deutschland, England, Frankreich und Italien im Vergleich, ed. Dowe, Dieter (Bonn: Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, 1986), 133.Google Scholar

10. Peukert, , The Weimar Republic, 90–91.Google Scholar

11. Roseman, Mark, Introduction to Generations in Conflict: Youth Revolt and Generation Formation in Germany 1770–1968 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Gadberry, Glen, Arnolt Bronnen and the Revolt of Youth: A Critical Analysis of Selected Works (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975), 152.Google Scholar

13. Other plays which would fit into this sub-genre are Reinhard Sorge's Der Bettler and Walter Hasenclever's Der Sohn.

14. Zuckmayer, 150.

15. See Bab, Julius, “Die Gewaltsamen,” Deutschlands Dramatische Production 1919–1926, vol. 5 of Die Chronik des Deutschen Dramas (Berlin: Oesterheld & Co., 1926), 181–190Google Scholar, and Behl, C. F. W., “Theatre: Vatermord,” Der Kritiker: Zeitschrift für Wirtschaft, Politik und Kunst 4 (1922): 8–10.Google Scholar

16. Bronnen, Amolt, arnolt bronnen gibt zu Protokoll (Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1954), 100.Google Scholar Bronnen's comments about the actors, written in the 1950s, cannot necessarily be taken as a true reflection of the quality of the performances. Bronnen moved in with Gerda Müller several months after the production, and the presence of Helene Weigel might only be noteworthy because of her later accomplishments.

17. Bronnen, Arnolt, Vatermord, (1920, reprint in the series Bibliothek des Expressionismus, Berlin: Kraus Reprint, 1973), 80.Google Scholar I have reproduced the punctuation of the play in my translations. Except for slashes and dashes, there are no punctuation marks in the play's dialogue.

18. Ibid., 30.

19. Roseman, 23.

20. Bronnen, , Vatermord, 66–67.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., 11–12.

22. Bessel, Richard, “The ‘Front Generation’ and the Politics of Weimar Germany,” in Generations in Conflict: Youth Revolt and Generation Formation in Germany 1770–1968, ed. Roseman, Mark (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 133.Google Scholar Bessel notes that in the Freikorps and S.A., groups which relied on the image of the heroic soldier, recruitment was better among the younger generation.

23. Bronnen, , Vatermord, 38.Google Scholar

24. Bronnen quoted in Siebenhauer, Klaus, Klänge aus Utopia: Zeitkritik, Wandlung und Utopie im expressionistischen Drama (Berlin: Agora Verlag, 1982), 41.Google Scholar

25. There is evidence of a split in the audience at the Berlin premiere, as Jhering, Herbert noted in his review: “From the performance went out such a sphere of power that the public behaved itself exemplarily during the performance and the whistling at the end was put down by hurricane-force applause.” “Vatermord: Junge Bühne im Deutschen Theatre,” Von Reinhard bis Brecht: Vier Jahrzehnte Theatre und Film, (Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1958), 2:258.Google Scholar This exemplary behavior lasted until the audience reached the lobby, where fistfights broke out.

26. Bronnen, , gibt zu protokoll, 103–104.Google Scholar

27. Grange, William, Comedy in the Weimar Republic: A Chronicle of Incongruous Laughter (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996), 19–20.Google Scholar