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Masse – Mensch. Textausgabe mit Kommentar und Materialien: [Reclam XL – Text und Kontext] – Toller, Ernst
Die Reihe Reclam XL - Text und Kontext bietet Klassikertexte mit Materialien im Anhang und ist damit speziell auf die Bedürfnisse des Deutschunterrichts zugeschnitten. Auf die sorgfältig edierten Texte folgen Erläuterungen einzelner Textstellen sowie Materialien, die das Verständnis des Werkes erleichtern und Impulse für Diskussionen im Unterricht liefern: Text- und Bilddokumente zu Quellen und Stoff, zur Biographie des Autors, zu seiner Epoche sowie zur Rezeptionsgeschichte. Die Herausgeber sind erfahrene Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, die die Materialien nach den neuesten Erkenntnissen von Germanistik und Fachdidaktik für jeden Band neu erarbeitet haben.
Die Bände von Reclam XL sind im Textteil seiten- und zeilenidentisch mit denen der Universal-Bibliothek. UB- und XL-Ausgaben sind also nicht nur im Unterricht nebeneinander verwendbar - es passen auch weiterhin alle Lektüreschlüssel, Erläuterungsbände und Interpretationen dazu.
E-Book mit Seitenzählung der gedruckten Ausgabe: Buch und E-Book können parallel benutzt werden.
Die Bände von Reclam XL sind im Textteil seiten- und zeilenidentisch mit denen der Universal-Bibliothek. UB- und XL-Ausgaben sind also nicht nur im Unterricht nebeneinander verwendbar - es passen auch weiterhin alle Lektüreschlüssel, Erläuterungsbände und Interpretationen dazu.
E-Book mit Seitenzählung der gedruckten Ausgabe: Buch und E-Book können parallel benutzt werden.
102 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1924
2 people are currently reading
157 people want to read
About the author
Ernst Toller
102 books29 followersErnst Toller (1 December 1893 – 22 May 1939) was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days.
Ernst Toller was born in Samotschin, Province of Posen, Prussia in 1893 into a Jewish family. At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for military duty, spent thirteen months on the Western Front, and suffered a complete physical and psychological collapse. His first drama, Transformation (Die Wandlung), was to be inspired by his wartime experiences.
Toller was involved in the 1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic, along with other leading anarchists – such as B. Traven and Gustav Landauer – and communists. Toller served as President from April 6 to April 12. It has been said that as a playwright, he was not very good at dealing with politics, and his government did little to restore order in Munich. His government members were also not always well-chosen. For instance, the Foreign Affairs Deputy Dr. Franz Lipp (who had been admitted several times to psychiatric hospitals), declared war on Switzerland over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Soviet Republic. He also informed Vladimir Lenin via cable that the ousted former Minister-President Hoffmann had fled to Bamberg and taken the key to the ministry toilet with him. On Palm Sunday, April 1919, the Communist Party seized power, with Eugen Leviné as their leader. The republic was short-lived and was defeated by right-wing forces. Toller was imprisoned for his part in the revolution.
While imprisoned, he completed work on Transformation, which premiered in Berlin under the direction of Karlheinz Martin in September 1919. At the time of Transformation's hundredth performance, the Bavarian government offered Toller a pardon, which the writer refused out of solidarity with other political prisoners. Toller would go on to write some of his most celebrated works in prison, including the dramas Masses Man (Masse Mensch), The Machine Breakers (Die Maschinenstürmer), Hinkemann, the German (Der deutsche Hinkemann), and many poems.
It would not be until after his release from prison in July 1925 that he would finally see a performance of one of his plays. In 1925, the most famous of his later dramas, Hoppla, We're Alive! (Hoppla, wir Leben!) directed by Erwin Piscator, premiered in Berlin. It tells the story of a revolutionary who is discharged from a mental hospital after eight years to discover that his once-revolutionary comrades have grown complacent and hopelessly compromised within the system they once opposed. In despair, he kills himself.
In 1933, after the Nazi rise to power, he was exiled from Germany. His citizenship was nullified by the Nazi government later that year. He traveled to London and participated as co-director in the Manchester production of his play Rake Out the Fires (Feuer aus den Kesseln) in 1935.
He went on a lecture tour of the United States and Canada in 1936 and 1937, before settling in California, where he worked on screenplays which remained unproduced. Toller moved to New York City in 1936, where he lived with a group of artists and writers in exile, including Klaus Mann, Erika Mann and Therese Giehse.
Suffering from deep depression (his sister and brother had been arrested and sent to concentration camps) and financial woes (he had given all his money to Spanish Civil War refugees), Toller committed suicide by hanging in his hotel room at the Mayflower Hotel on May 22, 1939.
The English author Robert Payne who knew Toller in Spain and in Paris writes at the end of the entry for May 23rd, 1942 in his Chungking diaries, "Forever China," that almost Toller's last words to him were: "If ever you read that I committed suicide, I beg you not to believe it." Payne continues: "He hanged himself with the silk cord of his nightgown in a hotel in New York two years ago. This is what the newspapers said at the time, but I continue to bel
Ernst Toller was born in Samotschin, Province of Posen, Prussia in 1893 into a Jewish family. At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for military duty, spent thirteen months on the Western Front, and suffered a complete physical and psychological collapse. His first drama, Transformation (Die Wandlung), was to be inspired by his wartime experiences.
Toller was involved in the 1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic, along with other leading anarchists – such as B. Traven and Gustav Landauer – and communists. Toller served as President from April 6 to April 12. It has been said that as a playwright, he was not very good at dealing with politics, and his government did little to restore order in Munich. His government members were also not always well-chosen. For instance, the Foreign Affairs Deputy Dr. Franz Lipp (who had been admitted several times to psychiatric hospitals), declared war on Switzerland over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Soviet Republic. He also informed Vladimir Lenin via cable that the ousted former Minister-President Hoffmann had fled to Bamberg and taken the key to the ministry toilet with him. On Palm Sunday, April 1919, the Communist Party seized power, with Eugen Leviné as their leader. The republic was short-lived and was defeated by right-wing forces. Toller was imprisoned for his part in the revolution.
While imprisoned, he completed work on Transformation, which premiered in Berlin under the direction of Karlheinz Martin in September 1919. At the time of Transformation's hundredth performance, the Bavarian government offered Toller a pardon, which the writer refused out of solidarity with other political prisoners. Toller would go on to write some of his most celebrated works in prison, including the dramas Masses Man (Masse Mensch), The Machine Breakers (Die Maschinenstürmer), Hinkemann, the German (Der deutsche Hinkemann), and many poems.
It would not be until after his release from prison in July 1925 that he would finally see a performance of one of his plays. In 1925, the most famous of his later dramas, Hoppla, We're Alive! (Hoppla, wir Leben!) directed by Erwin Piscator, premiered in Berlin. It tells the story of a revolutionary who is discharged from a mental hospital after eight years to discover that his once-revolutionary comrades have grown complacent and hopelessly compromised within the system they once opposed. In despair, he kills himself.
In 1933, after the Nazi rise to power, he was exiled from Germany. His citizenship was nullified by the Nazi government later that year. He traveled to London and participated as co-director in the Manchester production of his play Rake Out the Fires (Feuer aus den Kesseln) in 1935.
He went on a lecture tour of the United States and Canada in 1936 and 1937, before settling in California, where he worked on screenplays which remained unproduced. Toller moved to New York City in 1936, where he lived with a group of artists and writers in exile, including Klaus Mann, Erika Mann and Therese Giehse.
Suffering from deep depression (his sister and brother had been arrested and sent to concentration camps) and financial woes (he had given all his money to Spanish Civil War refugees), Toller committed suicide by hanging in his hotel room at the Mayflower Hotel on May 22, 1939.
The English author Robert Payne who knew Toller in Spain and in Paris writes at the end of the entry for May 23rd, 1942 in his Chungking diaries, "Forever China," that almost Toller's last words to him were: "If ever you read that I committed suicide, I beg you not to believe it." Payne continues: "He hanged himself with the silk cord of his nightgown in a hotel in New York two years ago. This is what the newspapers said at the time, but I continue to bel
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 22, 2023
"Masse ist nicht heilig.
Gewalt schuf Masse.
Besutzunrecht schuf Masse.
Masse ist Trieb aus Not,
Ist gläubige Demut...
Ist grausame Rache...
Ist blinder Sklave...
Ist frommer Wille...
Masse ist zerstampfter Acker,
Masse ist verschüttet Volk."
Gewalt schuf Masse.
Besutzunrecht schuf Masse.
Masse ist Trieb aus Not,
Ist gläubige Demut...
Ist grausame Rache...
Ist blinder Sklave...
Ist frommer Wille...
Masse ist zerstampfter Acker,
Masse ist verschüttet Volk."
July 28, 2014
This is a very powerful anti-war play whose themes are very relevant today, especially regarding indifference on the part of people who profit from war, the authenticity of people who "dance or play music" against war, and the battle between the individual and the masses.
This is a quick and easy read with some memorable quotes. Given what Toller saw and experienced while in prison, this is a book whose message cannot be disputed. It is a shame that it has disappeared in the mists of history. I wonder who will have to courage to resuscitate it?
This is a quick and easy read with some memorable quotes. Given what Toller saw and experienced while in prison, this is a book whose message cannot be disputed. It is a shame that it has disappeared in the mists of history. I wonder who will have to courage to resuscitate it?
November 5, 2021
For Babylon Berlin
I will definitely be re-reading this for my thesis I think as there are many similarities between this and my subject matter. It's not the best play ever, but the ideas and the moral dilemma of how to deal with ideological imposition are interesting. Does change come through pacifism or violence? Does change come through reconciliation and compromise, or elimination and homogeneity? These are questions people still have within activist circles, so it's interesting to see how this problem is at the center of all movements, regardless of time or place.
I will definitely be re-reading this for my thesis I think as there are many similarities between this and my subject matter. It's not the best play ever, but the ideas and the moral dilemma of how to deal with ideological imposition are interesting. Does change come through pacifism or violence? Does change come through reconciliation and compromise, or elimination and homogeneity? These are questions people still have within activist circles, so it's interesting to see how this problem is at the center of all movements, regardless of time or place.
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January 26, 2025Uni-Lektüre
April 29, 2018
A rough and mysterious ride into the troublesome years following the First World War in Germany. In this context it is, that Toller shows us a struggle over life and death by dehumanized figures, fighting over the right to define what the mass is, what the individual is and how both are to be valued. It is a deeply expressionist experience, as these dehumanized figures with their fractured language and behaviour as well as the grotesque dreamlike scenes bitingly reveal the cynism of the contemporary mechanized and capitalized mindset.
November 29, 2008
Es lebe das Proletariat! Ich bin bald Spezialistin für Krawallliteratur...
May 9, 2022
Ich würde sagen, es liegt am Expressionismus oder der Ernst Toller war auf Drogen oder beides. Sprechende Metaphern, wilde Träume und die sozialistische Message.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews