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مواطنو كاليه
Die Bürger von Calais. Text und Kommentar. (Lernmaterialien)
- GenresDramaGerman Literature
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First published January 1, 1914
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About the author
Georg Kaiser
89 books7 followersFriedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, (November 25, 1878 – June 4, 1945) was a German dramatist.
He was highly prolific and wrote in a number of different styles. An Expressionist dramatist, he was, along with Gerhart Hauptmann, the most frequently performed playwright in the Weimar Republic. Georg Kaiser's plays include The Burghers of Calais (1913), From Morn to Midnight (1912), and a trilogy, comprising The Coral (1917), Gas (1918), Gas II (1920).
He died at Ascona, Switzerland.
The Burghers of Calais (Die Bürger von Calais), written in 1913, was not performed until 1917. It was Kaiser's first success. The play is very dense linguistically, with its dialogue comprising numerous emotive monologues influenced by the Telegramstil poetics of August Stramm. Like Kaiser's other works of the period, it bears the mark of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy, calling upon the modern individual to transcend mediocrity through extraordinary actions; the Expressionist 'New Man' became a commonplace of the genre.
From Morning to Midnight, filmed by Karlheinz Martin in 1920, was written in 1912 and first performed in 1917. One of the most frequently performed works of German Expressionist theatre, its plot concerns a Cashier (played by Ernst Deutsch in Martin's film) in a small bank in W. (ostensibly Weimar) who is alerted to the power of money by the visit of a rich Italian lady. He embezzles 60,000 Marks and absconds to B. (Berlin) where he attempts to find transcendent experiences in sport, romance and religion, only to be ultimately frustrated.
Kaiser's classic Expressionist plays, written just before and during World War I, often called for man to make a decisive break with the past, rejuvenating contemporary society. He eschewed characterization, and particularly character psychology, instead making his protagonists and other characters archetypes, employing highly anti-naturalistic dialogue often comprising lengthy individual speeches.
Kaiser's drama Side by Side (Nebeneinander, 1923), a 'people's play' (Volksstück), premiered in Berlin on the 3rd November, 1923, directed by Berthold Viertel with design by George Grosz. With this play Kaiser moved away from the Expressionism of his previous works. Utilizing a more rounded characterization and more realistic curt, comic dialogue to tell a light-hearted story of an idealistic pawnbroker caught up in the hyperinflation afflicting Germany at the time (the currency stabilization came a fortnight after the play opened), the play inaugurated the 'new sobriety' (Neue Sachlichkeit) in the drama. "Kaiser has left the cloud that used to surround him," a review in the Weltbühne suggested, "and landed with both feet on the earth."
Kaiser's plays, particularly From Morning to Midnight, were highly influential on the German dramatists operating during the 1920s, including Iwan Goll, Ernst Toller and Bertolt Brecht, who drew on Kaiser's use of revue-type scenes and parable, which was influenced by medieval and 16th-century German mystery plays.
Kaiser collaborated with the composer Kurt Weill on his one-act operas Der Protagonist (1926) and Der Zar lässt sich photographieren (1928), also Der Silbersee (1933).
In his later years, he developed his criticism of the modern machine age that had characterised the Gas trilogy further. Imprisoned briefly in 1923 for stealing a loaf of bread during the hyper-inflationary crisis, Kaiser fled to Switzerland when the Nazis came to power in the 1930s (Kaiser went into exile in 1938), and turned to writing verse dramas on mythological themes, including Pygmalion, Amphitryon, and Bellerophon, and a pacifist drama, The Soldier Tanaka (1940). The Raft of the Medusa (1945) is a play written in verse that reverses the ethos of The Burghers of Calais in a more pessimistic direction; to avoid bad luck, thirteen children on a life-raft drown the youngest of them.
He was highly prolific and wrote in a number of different styles. An Expressionist dramatist, he was, along with Gerhart Hauptmann, the most frequently performed playwright in the Weimar Republic. Georg Kaiser's plays include The Burghers of Calais (1913), From Morn to Midnight (1912), and a trilogy, comprising The Coral (1917), Gas (1918), Gas II (1920).
He died at Ascona, Switzerland.
The Burghers of Calais (Die Bürger von Calais), written in 1913, was not performed until 1917. It was Kaiser's first success. The play is very dense linguistically, with its dialogue comprising numerous emotive monologues influenced by the Telegramstil poetics of August Stramm. Like Kaiser's other works of the period, it bears the mark of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy, calling upon the modern individual to transcend mediocrity through extraordinary actions; the Expressionist 'New Man' became a commonplace of the genre.
From Morning to Midnight, filmed by Karlheinz Martin in 1920, was written in 1912 and first performed in 1917. One of the most frequently performed works of German Expressionist theatre, its plot concerns a Cashier (played by Ernst Deutsch in Martin's film) in a small bank in W. (ostensibly Weimar) who is alerted to the power of money by the visit of a rich Italian lady. He embezzles 60,000 Marks and absconds to B. (Berlin) where he attempts to find transcendent experiences in sport, romance and religion, only to be ultimately frustrated.
Kaiser's classic Expressionist plays, written just before and during World War I, often called for man to make a decisive break with the past, rejuvenating contemporary society. He eschewed characterization, and particularly character psychology, instead making his protagonists and other characters archetypes, employing highly anti-naturalistic dialogue often comprising lengthy individual speeches.
Kaiser's drama Side by Side (Nebeneinander, 1923), a 'people's play' (Volksstück), premiered in Berlin on the 3rd November, 1923, directed by Berthold Viertel with design by George Grosz. With this play Kaiser moved away from the Expressionism of his previous works. Utilizing a more rounded characterization and more realistic curt, comic dialogue to tell a light-hearted story of an idealistic pawnbroker caught up in the hyperinflation afflicting Germany at the time (the currency stabilization came a fortnight after the play opened), the play inaugurated the 'new sobriety' (Neue Sachlichkeit) in the drama. "Kaiser has left the cloud that used to surround him," a review in the Weltbühne suggested, "and landed with both feet on the earth."
Kaiser's plays, particularly From Morning to Midnight, were highly influential on the German dramatists operating during the 1920s, including Iwan Goll, Ernst Toller and Bertolt Brecht, who drew on Kaiser's use of revue-type scenes and parable, which was influenced by medieval and 16th-century German mystery plays.
Kaiser collaborated with the composer Kurt Weill on his one-act operas Der Protagonist (1926) and Der Zar lässt sich photographieren (1928), also Der Silbersee (1933).
In his later years, he developed his criticism of the modern machine age that had characterised the Gas trilogy further. Imprisoned briefly in 1923 for stealing a loaf of bread during the hyper-inflationary crisis, Kaiser fled to Switzerland when the Nazis came to power in the 1930s (Kaiser went into exile in 1938), and turned to writing verse dramas on mythological themes, including Pygmalion, Amphitryon, and Bellerophon, and a pacifist drama, The Soldier Tanaka (1940). The Raft of the Medusa (1945) is a play written in verse that reverses the ethos of The Burghers of Calais in a more pessimistic direction; to avoid bad luck, thirteen children on a life-raft drown the youngest of them.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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May 26, 2021The King of England wants to take Calais, a port city in France. But he puts the fate of the town in the hands of its inhabitants. Six citizens must sacrifice themselves for the city, then Calais will remain. Thus begins a "game" among the citizens. One of them, betrays the people and thus has to die. But in the end, the fate of Calais and its citizens turns around.
The book is exciting and contains many rhetorical questions, paradoxes, methaphors and other stylistic devices. It's also interesting because it's a historical event (1347).
The book is exciting and contains many rhetorical questions, paradoxes, methaphors and other stylistic devices. It's also interesting because it's a historical event (1347).
December 12, 2025
War schmerzhaft zu lesen, leider…
Auch wenn die Themen interessant sind, finde ich sie einfach nicht interessant umgesetzt. Aber ich denke, ich gehöre auch nicht wirklich zur Zielgruppe dieses Romans, deshalb irgendwo fair, dass er mir nicht gefällt.
Auch wenn die Themen interessant sind, finde ich sie einfach nicht interessant umgesetzt. Aber ich denke, ich gehöre auch nicht wirklich zur Zielgruppe dieses Romans, deshalb irgendwo fair, dass er mir nicht gefällt.
September 25, 2016
This short drama by Kaiser was inspired by a statue by Rodin, which was itself inspired by a French legend based on historical fact. During the 100 Years War, the city of Calais came under siege by England, and after putting up a staunch defense, was finally forced to surrender. In retribution for their stubbornness, the English King gave Calais a unique punishment: he demanded six prominent citizens be delivered to him as hostages, presumably to be executed (he specified that they come to him with nooses tied around their necks). Six brave men volunteered, led by Eustache de Saint Pierre, who called on them to do their duty. However, when they presented themselves to the King, he had a change of heart and spared their lives. Rodin’s statue “The Burghers of Calais,” shows the men with ropes around their necks, bravely, but reluctantly, doing their duty and showing the pain and despair of anticipated suicide in their faces. Kaiser took this even further by writing a play that expresses the anguish of surrender and the conflicts that each of the Burghers experiences in agreeing to the situation. He also modifies the outcome: Eustache de Saint-Pierre does actually kill himself in this version, and in making this sacrifice causes the clemency of the King for the others.
This play will definitely not be for everyone. Some of the German is non-standard or antiquated, and much of the dialog concerns abstract concepts like duty and honor discussed in fairly complex ways that will be hard for a second-language speaker to follow. Moreover, the subject matter is fairy depressing, in spite of the “happy” ending, and a sense of doom understandably hangs over the characters throughout. Some will find the Expressionist conventions do not make the story easier to follow: with a few exceptions, many of the characters are “types” with names like “Der Dritte Burger,” and they are largely interchangeable. I even had a hard time tracking the difference between those with names like Eustache de Saint-Pierre, Jean de Vienne, and Jacques de Wissant. A lot of the time, the dialog could almost be read as a single person arguing with himself about his own desire to live vs. the desire to do what is right. That, however, is where the dramatic tension lies as well as the moral of the story.
This play will definitely not be for everyone. Some of the German is non-standard or antiquated, and much of the dialog concerns abstract concepts like duty and honor discussed in fairly complex ways that will be hard for a second-language speaker to follow. Moreover, the subject matter is fairy depressing, in spite of the “happy” ending, and a sense of doom understandably hangs over the characters throughout. Some will find the Expressionist conventions do not make the story easier to follow: with a few exceptions, many of the characters are “types” with names like “Der Dritte Burger,” and they are largely interchangeable. I even had a hard time tracking the difference between those with names like Eustache de Saint-Pierre, Jean de Vienne, and Jacques de Wissant. A lot of the time, the dialog could almost be read as a single person arguing with himself about his own desire to live vs. the desire to do what is right. That, however, is where the dramatic tension lies as well as the moral of the story.
September 12, 2015
God, if you read just one German Expressionist play let it be this one.
Based on Rodin's famous statue, Die Buerger von Calais (The Citizens of Calais) explores the meaning that can be found in life, death, and sacrifice in the absence of formalized religion. And holy cow is it powerful.
Based on Rodin's famous statue, Die Buerger von Calais (The Citizens of Calais) explores the meaning that can be found in life, death, and sacrifice in the absence of formalized religion. And holy cow is it powerful.
November 14, 2012
German classic.
January 11, 2017
Das Thema selbst ist interessant, aber die Pathetik der Sprache dieser literarischen Epoche macht es nicht gerade leicht zu verdauen.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews