Erdgeist

Lulu #1

by Frank Wedekind

Bei diesem Werk handelt es sich um eine urheberrechtsfreie Ausgabe.
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Genres: Plays, Drama, German Literature, Classics, Fiction, 19th Century

82 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1895

About the author

Frank Wedekind was a German dramatist whose bold, unconventional plays reshaped modern theatre by challenging social norms and exposing the hypocrisies of bourgeois morality, especially around sexuality. Raised between Germany and Switzerland and drawn early to travel, performance, and satire, he lived an eclectic life that included work in advertising, time with a circus, and a celebrated stint as a cabaret performer with the influential troupe Die elf Scharfrichter. His fearlessness as both writer and performer made him a central figure in the artistic circles of Munich, where his sharp wit and provocative themes influenced a new generation of socially critical satirists. His early play Spring Awakening caused an uproar for its frank depictions of adolescent sexuality, repression, and violence, while his two-part “Lulu” cycle introduced a character whose rise and fall exposed society’s fascination with desire and destruction. These works challenged censorship, pushed theatrical boundaries, and later inspired films, operas, and adaptations across decades. Wedekind’s personal life was intense and often turbulent, marked by complicated relationships, creative restlessness, and brushes with authority, including a prison sentence for lèse-majesté after publishing satirical poems. His marriage to the actress Tilly Newes brought both devotion and strain, reflected in the emotional swings of his later years. Even near the end of his life, recovering from surgery, he returned to the stage too soon, driven by the same energy that fueled his art. His influence extended well beyond his death, resonating through the Weimar era and shaping the development of expressionism and later epic theatre. Many of his works were translated, staged, or adapted by major artists, ensuring that his confrontational spirit and fearless exploration of human desire would remain part of the theatrical canon.

Reviews

[Jim Dooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Frank Wedekind wrote his famous magnum opus, LULU, the play ran into many censorship problems and was infrequently produced. Oddly enough, although not many people saw it, the story became very famous (especially in Germany). In an effort to find a larger audience and reduce the censorship problems, he restructured LULU as two separate plays ... ERDGEIST and PANDORA'S BOX. The split was not unlike ANGELS IN AMERICA, although for different reasons.

ERDGEIST is the first part and PANDORA'S BOX the second. ERDGEIST has the more difficult task to accomplish as it needs to set-up the story before things get rolling. It contains only one famous incident, a shooting that occurs in the final Act, while PANDORA'S BOX contains multiple famous incidents.

ERDGEIST is something of a challenge. Wedekind wrote a part for himself in the first Act as a circus ringmaster who is introducing one of the world's most dangerous Beasts ... Lulu. Everyone wants her, but she feeds on what she needs and moves on to the next prey. It is a stylized introduction, so it seems bombastic.

As we move into the play itself, much of the language is stilted and motivations are not clearly explained. Indeed, Lulu floats through he story as something of a chameleon, changing to fit with the situation in which she finds herself. Yes, she seeks prey for survival, but she is also manipulated by those around her ... and she adapts.

The original LULU is seldom performed now. Companies often edit the two plays and perform it as an abridgment called LULU. That's a good decision, although I very much enjoyed the original version (long though it was).

My advice to the Reader is to find the original to truly savor the work. If you choose to experience the two-play revision instead, stay with it. ERDGEIST needs about two Acts before it finally hits its stride. With the background behind it, PANDORA'S BOX is more involving throughout.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

This portrait of a groomed girl is a bit too saturated by male fantasies and fears.

[Jesse]

This is part 1 of a 2-parter. It doesn't stand on its own. Know that to get the end, you also need to read Pandora's Box.

Also, know this! If you are actually considering reading this, don't read it's Wikipedia page when you are done. I did, and it spoils the end of the SECOND part, despite the fact that the other play has its own Wikipedia page.

[Iulia Kyçyku · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7*

[musi · Rating 4 out of 5]

DIOS MIO THE TEAAAAA IS BOILING 🙏🏻🙏🏻 i love el drama y la tragedia con todo lo q tengo and i just love ver a los hombres sufrir y ser patéticos

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The English translation is only slightly less baffling than the German, and either will help to clarify what's happening in the first half of the famous silent film staring Louise Brooks.


From the beginning, the language is off-putting, starting with the pompous prologue in verse:

(A stage-hand with a big paunch carries out the actress of Lulu in her Pierrot costume, and sets her down before the animal-tamer.)
She was created to incite to sin,
To lure, seduce, poison—yea, murder, in
A manner no man knows.—My pretty beast, (Tickling Lulu's chin.)
Only be unaffected, and not pieced
Out with distorted, artificial folly,
Even if the critics praise thee for 't less wholly.
Thou hast no right to spoil the shape most fitting,
Most true, of woman, with meows and spitting!

(It's enough to send the reader scurrying to the German, isn't it? WTH did I just read?)

The four acts that follow are not in verse, fortunately. The dialogue does often slip into some kind of way too literal translationese:

SCHIGOLCH. Would be possible, for it certainly isn't going like it usually does. (Stroking her knee.) Now you tell—not seen you a long time—my little Lulu.

LULU. (Jerking back, smiling.) Life is beyond me!

SCHIGOLCH. What do you know about it? You're still so young!

LULU. That you call me Lulu.

SCHIGOLCH. Lulu, isn't it? Have I ever called you anything else?

LULU. In the memory of man my name has no longer been Lulu.

SCHIGOLCH. Another way of naming?

Despite these obstacles, however, the play made a strong impression. Much of the sordid backstory (as we call it) comes out bit by bit, and the melodramatic plot (hypergamy gone so, so wrong), given its inclination to ridiculousness, is very well handled. I would read it again. I would try to read it in German. I would love to watch Pandora's Box again, with a little more idea of what's going on.

[j]

The farthest extents of my funhouse mirror familiarity with this material until today have been two musical sources: Berg's opera, and Lou Reed and Metallica's (very loosely) inspired-by album. [Both these works are phenomenally good, by the way.]

This first part of Wedekind's two part work is as sly and sneaky and self-aware as you are willing to believe it is. Garish and melodramatic and funny, Wedekind's enigmatic, prismatic, anti-heroine is only as threatening and venomous as the madness-inducing lust of the men bumbling around her. On to Pandora's Box...!

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the whole play except the last act, it might just be me being 13 and all- but it was difficult for me to understand the situation there? All these new characters were introduced that -their correlation to Lulu didn’t really show. So I may have skipped the last act. Only because it wouldn’t have been any use to read it anyway. And I hope it wasn’t too crucial to piecing together the whole story... but other than that, it was such a great story!

[Christine Veeg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly funny for a tragedy.

[Justyna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dieses Buch ist einfach veraltet. Nicht jedes Buch aus dem Kanon ist immer noch lesenswert. Dieses ist vielleicht interessant als Zeugnis einer vergangenen Mentalität. Na ja.

[Dony Grayman]

Colección Biblioteca Básica Universal no recuerdo qué número.

[Renée para los amigos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Che jsjsjs qué le pintaba a la mina esta la amo

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excited to start Pandora’s box and then watch the movie. Reading cuz I’m a Momus fan (How do you like my sister is based on the Lulú plays loosely)

[Terry Bardov]

48:1. We have opened up a clear victory for you.

[ሂባ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very.... Interesting

[Walter]

The frightening, suicidal pull of corrupted male desire.

[Jen Well-Steered · Rating 3 out of 5]

I... don't get existentialism at all.