Hölderlin; Stück in zwei Akten.

by Peter Weiss

The work of German poet Frederich Hölderlin (1770–1843) has inspired countless poets and philosophers from Paul Celan to Rainer Maria Rilke to Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche. Yet, despite the international renown and respect his hymns and elegies have since earned for their lyric style and innovative approach to Greek myth, his work was not widely celebrated during his lifetime. Diagnosed with a severe case of hypochondria at a young age, he was beset by mental illness for much of his life, living the final decades in the care of a carpenter. In Hölderlin, distinguished German playwright Peter Weiss brings to the page the life and times of one of Germany’s greatest poets. Like Trotsky in Exile, Hölderlin presents a biography in the form of a two-act drama. Following its opening in 1971 in Stuttgart, the play was staged numerous times in Germany and Switzerland, and as Robert Cohen explains in his introduction, it was “greeted by accolades as well as by intense criticism since Weiss had dared to revise the image of one of the great heroic figures of German Culture.” Weiss explains that he was motivated “to describe something of the conflict that arises in a person who suffers to the point of madness from the injustices, the humiliations in his society, who completely supports the revolutionary upheavals, and yet does not find the praxis with which the misery can be remedied.” The resulting dramatic biography is as captivating and divisive today as it was forty years ago, and it has yet to be matched by any other biographic treatment of Hölderlin. Presented here for the first time in English, Weiss’s play is a lyrical investigation of the intense and influential poems of Hölderlin and the turbulent life behind them.

Genres: Drama, Plays, Theatre, Historical Fiction, Germany

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Peter Ulrich Weiss was a German writer, painter, and artist of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his play Marat/Sade and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance.

Weiss' first art exhibition took place in 1936. His first produced play was Der Turm in 1950. In 1952 he joined the Swedish Experimental Film Studio, where he made films for several years. During this period, he also taught painting at Stockholm's People's University, and illustrated a Swedish edition of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. Until the early 1960s, Weiss also wrote prose. His work consists of short and intense novels with Kafkaesque details and feelings, often with autobiographical background. One of the most known films made by Peter Weiss is an experimental one, The Mirage (1959) and the second one - it is very seldom mentioned - is a film Weiss directed in Paris 1960 together with Barbro Boman, titled Play Girls or The Flamboyant Sex (Schwedische Mädchen in Paris or Verlockung in German). Among the short films by Weiss, The Studio of Doctor Faust (1956) shows the extremely strong link of Weiss to a German cultural background.

Weiss' best-known work is the play Marat/Sade (1963), first performed in West Berlin in 1964, which brought him widespread international attention. The following year, legendary director Peter Brook staged a famous production in New York City. It studies the power in society through two extreme and extremely different historical persons, Jean-Paul Marat, a brutal hero of the French Revolution, and the Marquis de Sade, for whom sadism was named. In Marat/Sade, Weiss uses a technique which, to quote from the play itself, speaks of the play within a play within itself: "Our play's chief aim has been to take to bits great propositions and their opposites, see how they work, and let them fight it out." The play is considered a classic, and is still performed, although less regularly.

Weiss was honored with the Charles Veillon Award, 1963; the Lessing Prize, 1965; the Heinrich Mann Prize, 1966; the Carl Albert Anderson Prize, 1967; the Thomas Dehler Prize, 1978; the Cologne Literature Prize, 1981; the Bremen Literature Prize, 1982; the De Nios Prize, 1982; the Swedish Theatre Critics Prize, 1982; and the Georg Büchner Prize, 1982.

A translation of Weiss' L'instruction (Die Ermittlung) was performed at London's Young Vic theater by a Rwandan company in November 2007. The production presented a dramatic contrast between the play's view on the Holocaust and the Rwandan actors' own experience with their nation's genocide.




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Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Deshalb erwägt
den Aufruf
der aus der Stille
von den Bergen kommt
und setzt ihm selbst
die Worte und
die Handlung"

Hölderlin, zwischen der Französischen und der 68er Revolution: Ist er als Träger der Flamme der Revolution im 20. Jahrhundert denkbar? Zuerst hat das braune Gesocks ihn für sich vereinnahmt, später kam die Linke. Erstaunlich, wie die Worte eines Dichters so unterschiedlich deutbar sind.
Peter Weiss führt uns einen Hölderlin vor, der als idealistischer Schwärmer und Dichter im Konflikt zu den Verstandesmenschen und Opportunisten wie Hegel, Schelling oder Goethe steht. Die Revolution kommt nicht und der unüberwindliche Gegner sind nicht die herrschende Klasse und das Kapital, sondern die Intellektuellen, die sich aus Kalkül nicht in den Dienst der Sache stellen wollen.
Das zarte Flämmchen der Revolution erstickt vorzeitig, weil anstelle von Entschlossenheit und Opferbereitschaft das eigene Vorankommen und der Erfolg priorisiert werden.

Scheitert Hölderlin als Poet, als Mensch oder als homo politicus? Peter Weiss wirft Schlaglichter auf Hölderlins Leben und was sie beleuchten ist der gescheiterten Revolutionär. Sprachmächtig sind die Bilder, eindringlich, sehr pathetisch. An Brecht erinnert mich das Drama, ein Lehrstück in zwei Akten. Hölderlin scheitert als Revoluzzer, und er scheitert, weil seine einstigen Genossen ihn im Stich lassen. Ob Hölderlin sich in erster Linie als Dichter sah und erst in zweiter als Philosoph und Weltverbesserer, diese Frage beantwortet Weiss nicht.

Gerade im Kontrast zu den Opportunisten und Machtmenschen hat mich der Hölderlin von Peter Weiss sehr bewegt; seine Bestimmung ist der Turm, nicht die Professorenstelle in Berlin. Und ja, das ist pathetisch, aber ich kann ihm gegenüber nicht gleichgültig bleiben.

Würde es 230 Jahre nach der Französischen Revolution einem Hölderlin anders, besser ergehen? Man muss es bezweifeln, globalisierte Machtstrukturen sind noch viel unüberwindbarer als ein Württemberger Fürst. Aber was, wenn niemand mehr das Gute wagen will, nicht mehr für das eintritt, was er für richtig hält? Ein Hölderlin wäre gut, vielleicht würde er mit Greta Thunberg durch die Lande ziehen, wer weiß.

Nicht zuletzt hat mich die Sprache mitgerissen, in der Peter Weiss das Stück gedichtet hat: mal in Knittelversen, mal hochliterarisch tragen die Personen ihre Texte vor und decken das gesamte Spektrum ab, witzig, pathetisch, zynisch, mitreißend.

Und auch wenn Hegel später als Opportunist, der hauptsächlich an seiner Karriereleiter interessiert ist, nicht so gut wegkommt, hat er mich als junger frecher Halbrevoluzzer erheitert:

"SCHNURRER
Wie sieht Er denn wieder aus
Magister Hegel
will Er sich Seiner Hoheit darstelln
als Verlumptes Genie

HEGEL
Ich überschreite die Schranken
meiner Individualität und tret
ins Allgemeine das heisst
ich arbeite
und dabei geht
die Kleidung drauf"

Wenn das keine spitzenmäßige Antwort auf den Vorhalt des Rektors ist, warum seine Studenten beim Schmücken des Saals für den Herzogsbesuch nicht wie aus dem Ei gepellt sind :)

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weiss' Holderlin

Best-known for his plays, "Marat/Sade" and "The Investigation", the playwright and novelist Peter Weiss (1916 -- 1982), wrote a two-act play in 1971-1972 based upon the life of the German romantic poet Friedrich Holderlin (1770 -- 1843). The play was produced in both East and West Germany and in Switzerland and sparked a great deal of controversy regarding the accuracy of Weiss' understanding of Holderlin. Holderlin was a poet and playright who went insane in the last half of his life. He spent 35 years living in the home of a carpenter and admirer of his poetry in a small tower with a view of the Neckar River. Holderlin's life is the stuff of tragedy and romance.

When I learned of the play, I wanted to read it due to my interest in German idealistic philosophy and in Martin Heidegger, one of many readers who have been deeply influenced by the poet. The play has been translated from the German by Jon Swan in collaboration with Carl Weber and published in 2010. As far as I am aware, this is the first English translation of Weiss' play. The volume includes as well a good introductory essay to the play by Robert Cohen, adjunct Professor of German at New York University and the author of several studies of Weiss, and Weiss' own Afterword to the play in which he offers comments on each of the characters and how they are to be performed.

I am not sure how "Holderlin" would fare on the stage, but the play is thoughtful, disturbing and provocative to read. The translation is into intense English poetry, sometimes rhymed, which itself captures something of Holderlin's restless spirit. The incidents on the play are factually based on Holderlin's life. In addition to the poet, the primary characters include the philosophers Hegel and Schelling, who were close to the poet and to each other during their student years at the seminary. The characters also include the poets Goethe and Schiller who also knew Holderlin and the philosopher Fichte, with whom Holderlin studied for a time. Other characters important to Holderlin presented in the play include Susette Gotard, whose family had hired Holderlin as a tutor and with whom he carried on what appears to be an affair, Professor Ferdinand Autenriech, a psychiatrist and the inventor of a restraining device for mental patients, who deemed Holderlin insane, and Friedrich Sinclair, another school friend who was tried for treason and who found Holderlin a position as a court librarian during the years of his insanity. Karl Marx makes an appearance late in the play, but this is an invention of the author. The historical characters, particularly Hegel and Goethe, are well portrayed in a short space and make an effective foil to the portrayal of Holderlin.

The play is full of scenes of violence and repressed sexuality. Many moments have a dream-like or hallucinatory quality especially during the years that Holderlin is confined to the tower. The climax of Weiss' drama is a play-within-a-play as Holderlin and a mysterious chorus offer his old school friends, including Hegel, Schelling, Sinclair, and others, a rendition and explanation of Holderlin's difficult drama, "Empedocles".

The play is presented against the background of the French Revolution, which is the source of the controversy that it has engendered. Many interpretations of Holderlin view him as a prototypical German nationalist, or as a solitary, or as a theological poet who attempts to bring new gods to life in a world in which the old gods have lost their meaning. Heidegger's hermeneutics, idiosyncratic as they may be, set out this approach. Weiss, following his own interpretation and some then-recent scholarly writing on the poet, sees Holderlin differently. Weiss sees Holderlin throughout his life as deeply enamored with the French Revolution and its ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. More, Weiss offers an almost Marxist reading of Holderlin. His character wants to rouse the common people from their centuries of stupor and exploitation so that they can free themselves and live nobly. Simple workers make frequent appearances in Weiss' play together with a proletarian character called "the Singer" who comments upon and presents the action. Holderlin's long imprisonment in the tower is political in character, Weiss suggests. And Holderlin's poetry was designed towards the liberation of all, rather than for the musings of elites.

As Robert Cohen points out in his introduction, it is difficult in this play to determine where the thought of Holderlin ends and the thought of Weiss begins. Weiss' play would not be a source to rely on with confidence for an understanding of Holderlin's poetics or thinking. But for all the provocations of interpretation, Weiss' play works as a drama. It is thoughtful and eerie. It shows a good deal about the man and the era in which he lived. I struggled with the play and with its ideas. It made me want to explore Holderlin for myself.

Robin Friedman

[Péter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wait, so Fichte is basically r....right?

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the author of the wildly imaginative Murat/Sade, this is a rather staid, philosophically heavy drama about the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.

In many ways, the play is about the French Revolution’s failure, as well as the failure of workers to rise up across Europe, and the failure of intellectuals who eventually surrendered their ideals to the existing princely order. I suppose that the play is trying to make the case that Holderlin’s madness later in life was caused by his uncompromising support of the French Revolution, and his subsequent punishment for being so unyielding.

There is much about the evils of private property and money. The Marxist theory is about as subtle as a brick to the head. Well, it’s as subtle as Marx’s appearance in the play (a totally fictional occurrence) to explain Holderlin to himself. My advice to writers of creative works who feel compelled to depict the ideas of Marx and Freud: Less is more. Keep Marxist and Freudian theories to a minimal. All the way to the logical extreme. (Maybe peruse The Origin of Species or The Self Gene instead.)

It’s also noteworthy that Weiss apparently thinks it’s clever to not use any punctuation. I don’t know why. (Too bourgeois?) I’m unclear how that is supposed to affect the performance.

This is a gloomy piece. And it was quite a letdown from the frenetic Marat/Sade, which was heavily philosophical but also rich in song and poetry and mischief. My expectations, though, were obviously unfair. The genius of Marat/Sade is a fleeting thing.

Taken by itself, this is a moderately interesting portrait of a poet not very well known in the English-speaking world. If you admire plays about Marxism, or late 18th century German Romanticism, or the poet Holderlin, you’ll probably enjoy this. If not, read Marat/Sade again.