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Documentary Theatre. Peter Weiss and Die Ermittlung. Alleinvertretungsanspruch. Claim to exclusive representation of the whole of Germany by various CDU governments, 1949-69. Refusal to acknowledge the existence of the GDR. Secondary anti-Semitism.
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Documentary Theatre Peter Weiss and Die Ermittlung
Alleinvertretungsanspruch • Claim to exclusive representation of the whole of Germany by various CDU governments, 1949-69. Refusal to acknowledge the existence of the GDR.
Secondary anti-Semitism • Hatred/rejection of Jews not because of anti-Semitic prejudice but because of their status as living reminders of the Holocaust. • “The Germans are not going to forgive us for Auschwitz." Zwi Rix, Israeli psychoanalyst
Peter Weiss • born 1916, father Hungarian Jewish textile factory owner who converted to Catholicism, mother a Swiss actress. • 1935 family emigrates to England • 1936-38 studies at academy of art in Prague • 1938 emigration to Switzerland after Nazi troops occupy parts of Czechoslovakia
1939 emigration to Sweden where he lives until his death • 19.Oct 1965 simultaneous opening of Die Ermittlung in West and East Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Essen, Dresden, Potsdam, Halle, Leipzig and other cities. • Peter Weiss dies May 10, 1982
The participants of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial visit Auschwitz
Rolf Hochhuth (1931-) Der Stellvetreter (1963)
Peter Weiss (1916-1982) Die Ermittlung (1965)
Heinar Kipphardt (1922-1982) In der Sache J.Robert Oppenheimer (1964) Bruder Eichmann (1983)
Naturalist Theatre • Anton Chekhov (R, 1860-1904) • Henrik Ibsen (N, 1828-1906) • August Strindberg (S, 1848-1912) • Gerhart Hauptmann (G, 1862-1946)
First Stockholm production of Strindberg’s 1988 play Miss Julie, 1906
Interior Characters are determined by their social background and dominated by their past Focuses on individuals Actor ‘becomes’ character: complete identification Illusionistic Plot (what?) Open stage, exterior Characters are changeable Focuses on political questions Actor ‘presents’ character Anti-Illusionistic (‘alienation effect’, breaking of identification) Breaks with illusion Process (how?) Naturalism vs. Brecht’s stage
Brecht’s ‘epic’ theatre • Verfremdungseffekte (‘De-Familiarisation’) • Montage principle • Self-reflexive • Self-commenting • No ‘fourth wall’ • The ‘Showing of showing’ • Didactic purpose
Brecht’s Theatre • No empathy, no identification with character on stage • Analysis of emotions • Audience is not ‘immersed’ in events on stage • Audience judges characters on stage • Audience judges situation on stage • ‘Glotzt nicht so romantisch!’
‘Das dokumentarische Theater ist parteilich’ Peter Weiss, Notitzen zum dokumentarischen Theater, 1968
Peter Weiss, Notitzen zum dokumentarischen Theater, 1968 • ‘Das dokumentarische Theater ist ein Theater der Berichterstattung, Protokolle, Akten, Briefe, statistische Tabellen etc.’ • ‘Auswahl, die sich auf ein bestimmtes, zumeist soziales oder politisches Thema konzentriert’. • Montage
Peter Weiss, Notizen zum dokumentarischen Theater, 1968 Documentary theatre is critique of • ‘Verschleierung’, (lit. veiling of reality) • ‘Wirklichkeitsfälschung’ • ‘Lügen’ • of public media – i.e. public media hide their relation to political power and interest groups – pretend to be ‘neutral’
Peter Weiss • ‘Meine Ortschaft’, essay written after visit to Auschwitz, 1964 • ‘Although I did not experience anything here, it remains a place for which I was destined and from which I escaped.’
Peter Weiss, ‘Meine Ortschaft’ • ‘I came here out of free will. I was not unloaded from a train. I was not driven into this area with clubs. [...] A living person has arrived and that which happened here makes itself unaccessible to him.’
Die Ermittlung, Akademie der Künste, East Berlin, 19 Oct, 1965
Peter Weiss, Die Ermittlung • ‘Bei der Aufführung dieses Dramas soll nicht der Versuch unternommen werden, den Gerichtshof […] zu rekonstruieren. Eine solche Rekonstruktion erscheint dem Schreiber des Dramas ebenso unmöglich, wie es die Darstellung des Lagers auf der Bühne wäre.’
The victims’ experience • Absolute alterity – being designated as the totally ‘other’ of humanity (Jews as ‘vermin’ etc) • Absolute heteronomy – literally: being defined by someone else, opposite of autonomy. German: Fremdbestimmung: Göring: ‘Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich’ • Thus marked, being determined for extinction • Jean Améry: Nazi racial laws are a ‘death sentence’ (in: At the mind’s limits)
Peter Weiss, Die Ermittlung • Subtitle: Ein Oratorium in 11 Gesängen • Look up ’oratorio’ (musical encyclopaedia or wikipedia) • Look up Dante’s Divine Comedy, or Commedia (e.g. wikipedia)