Oktoberrevolution und Sowjetrussland auf dem deutschen Theater. Zur Verwendung eines geschichtlichen Motivs im deutschen Schauspiel von 1918 bis zur Gegenwart by Gunter Reus
1979; Western Michigan University; Volume: 13; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/cdr.1979.0048
ISSN1936-1637
Autores ResumoReviews 377 which plagues this book. One comes away from this volume asking quietly and directly: cui bono, cui bono? JAMES COAKLEY Northwestern University Gunter Reus. Oktoberrevolution und Sowjetrussland auf dem deutschen Theater. Zur Verwendung eines geschichtlichen Motivs im deutschen Schauspiel von 1918 bis zur Gegenwart. Bonn: Bouvier, 1978. Pp. 399. In this work which was originally submitted as a doctoral thesis at the University of Mainz, the author analyzes a certain tradition in Ger man dramatic art that evolved over the last sixty years: the reference to the historical facts of the Russian Revolution and of the post-revolu tionary evolution of a socialist society in the Soviet Union as central themes of plays belonging to the new genre of predominantly socialist “Political Theater.” The two main parts of the book both deal with “The Image of the Revolution in Political Theater,” the end of World War II serving as the dividing line. Starting with the “Proletkult” theater after 1918, the author proceeds in chronological order, discussing in great detail the various experiments in search of new forms that would adequately convey the powerful social and political message dictated by the historical reality which was reflected by the new subject matter. The first stage in this development is charac terized by the plays of Wittfogel (Rote Sodaten), Mühsam (Judas), Jung (Die Kanaker), as well as by the influential productions of Piscator’s “Pro letarian Theater” founded in 1920. While they project revolutionary activity in Germany, drawing only indirectly on the experience of the Russian Revolution, the plays of Barta (Russlands Tag) and Lask (Die Befreiung) already mark the transition to the “Revolutionary Workers’ Theater” after 1924 which attempts to demonstrate the historical princi ples revealed by the political phenomenon of the October Revolution. Here, Preus focusses on the instrumental role of Piscator’s productions during this phase (Leonhard’s Segel am Horizont, Paquet’s Sturmflut), also pointing out the ideological errors in his adaptations of Welk’s Gewitter über Gottland and Schiller’s Räuber. The third stage, according to Preus, is determined by a change of perspective. After 1927, the largely amateur “Proletarian Revolutionary Agitprop Theater,” stimulated by the Russian “Blue Tunic” amateur theater groups, moves away from the dramatization of the past historical conflict towards a demonstration of the concrete effects of mass initiative inspired by the advanced revolutionary process on the economic and political problems facing the proletariate in everyday life. Using Für die Sowjetmacht, a show, and Becher’s Der grosse Plan as examples, Preus points out the characteristic features of these productions which make extensive use of a wide variety of stylistic devices, including film scenes, posters, chorus, etc. The pre-war development culminated in the plays 378 Comparative Drama of Wolf and Brecht whose Die Mutter is pronounced here as exemplary for the “great form” of truly revolutionary theater. The total political and ideological division of Germany after 1945 with the ensuing fundamental change of the social basis of die GDR had the consequence that this as well as related themes gained official sanction in view of their paradigmatic functions for the building of a socialist society in East Germany. Thus, they assumed their essential role during the infancy of the emerging socialist drama of the GDR which, following Marxist literary doctrine, was “political” by its very nature. However, since the self-image of the developing socialist society in the GDR emphasized the anti-fascist struggle, the revival of democ racy, and a new humanism as main aspects, the history of the revolution as the traditional thematic component of revolutionary theater faded into the background in favor of a shift towards a dramatic exploration of what revolutionary action meant in this new historical and political environment. Preus traces this process which, in part, involves a return to the Agitprop tradition, from early plays by Müller (Zehn Tage, die die Welt erschütterten and Zement), Wiens (Ein Denkmal für Dascha), and Baierl (Der lange Weg zu Lenin) to those plays that deal exclusively with the contemporary situation: Stolper’s Das Geständnis, Himmelfahrt zur Erde, Zeitgenossen, Zwei Physiker and Fischbom’s Mildernde Um stände: keine. The situation of the...
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