Georg Büchner: Woyzeck. Lektüreschlüssel für Schüler

by Georg Büchner

Rare Book

96 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published April 1, 2006

About the author

Karl Georg Büchner was a German dramatist and writer of prose. He was the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. Georg Büchner's talent is generally held in great esteem in Germany. It is widely believed that, but for his early death, he might have attained the significance of such central German literary figures as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.

Reviews

[Marie-Josephine Hakelberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently read Woyzeck and didn't really like or understand it. I still don't like it much but this study guide helped me understand why Woyzeck was so relevant at the time and is considered a classic now. So it certainly does its job well.

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’m confused

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I studied Woyzeck (not this version) as a part of a university theatre direction subject. My first impression was combined with sheer horror, because what could I do with it? It came across as disjointed, incomplete and a little incomprehensible. And it is. It is also incredible, and this became more obvious as we delved into the play. There is so much that can be read into the sparse script. The story of a soldier, struggling with voices in his head and apocalyptic visions, his relationship with his superiors, his relationship with and eventual murder of his girlfriend are open to so many shades of meaning.

Being incomplete — Büchner died before completing it — different productions often reorganise the order of chapters, and it is interesting how this can change the meaning. In the course, we each chose a different scene and presented it as we saw fit. When put back together, the effect was very interesting. Different chapters lend themselves to different theatre techniques, and we made full use of this. Commedia dell Arte, realism, Impressionism, and surrealism were used in the various scenes. Strangely, this worked well when the play was put back together, for us, anyway. It opened up even more potential. I think that we all ended up loving the play.

[Dolf van der Haven · Rating 4 out of 5]

The opera Wozzeck by Alban Berg is one of my favourite operas of all time. It was based on this play, Woyzeck, by Georg Büchner.
Büchner's work consists of fragments of a play that was left unfinished due to the author dying of typhus at a young age. As such, it is sometimes hard to follow. Nevertheless, with the opera in mind, it is still an enjoyable play to read, with fairly simple German (including Düsseldorf dialect). Berg did a great job connecting all the fragments into his masterpiece opera, which will still be my favourite version of this play.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich bin mir nicht sicher ob ich alles verstanden habe und werde die Bewertun bearbeiten sobald wir in der Schule alles analysiert haben.

[Revpez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in English trans by Gregory Motton. The play came up in something else I was reading and I looked it up - once played the Doctor in a Macquarie Players production.