The Captain of Köpenick (play)
The Captain of Köpenick. A German fairy tale in three acts is a drama of Zuckmayer from the year 1931.
Formation
In 1930, Carl Zuckmayer after the had been made aware of his friend Fritz Kortner on the fabric, send from its publisher material on the events of 1906 and was thrilled. After his decision was made to write the piece to Zuck Mayer moved to its Austrian home after Henndorf and wrote from early September to November 1930 a three-act comedy drama entitled Der Hauptmann von Köpenick. A German fairy tale in three acts. The piece was first performed in the title role on March 5, 1931 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin under the direction of Heinz Hilpert with Werner Krauss. 7f
The piece has been adopted by many stages and almost two years played throughout Germany to sold-out houses, to the seizure of power by the Nazis in January 1933, the success put an end to. The performance of Zuckmayers pieces was prohibited.
Action
The Guard Captain of Schlettow can be adapted in the uniform shop of the tailor Adolph Worms in Berlin a maßgefertigen tunic in Berlin in the 1890s. During the fitting of the recently released from prison convict Wilhelm Voigt looks inside. The unkempt and emaciated man wants to ask for work, but is thrown out. In a police office in Potsdam Voigt applies for a residence, but the sergeant can not issue him this without proof of a job. Since, however, a residence permit is required to get a job, Voigt is in a vicious circle. Voigt wants to leave Prussia, but for that you need a passport, the official may not issue him because he is not competent. The night spent Voigt as homeless in a waiting room.
In the third scene Voigt meets in a coffee shop his former friend Paul Kallenberg, called Kalle, who is also homeless. Kalle will come through an offense to money, but Voigt intends to start an honest life, and refuses to participate in the planned coup. While the two former convicts talk about it, enters the captain of Schlettow in civil the tap room. As Kalle and a drunken Garde Grenadier advised because of a prostitute in dispute, tried by Schlettow to call the grenadier to order, giving him nothing seems to work, because he wears a uniform. It comes to a fight. So not only the grenadier, but also of Schlettow is discharged from the police. From Schlettow must submit his resignation because of the incident and allowed to return to the new tunic. The Uniform acquires the Köpenick city councilor Dr. Obermuller which has just been promoted to reserve officer and quickly needed a new uniform for the occasion.
The trained Schuster Voigt renewed attempts to find work and applying in a shoe factory, but rejected by the authorized officer, as he can not produce any residence, was in prison and has never served. Voigt persuaded Kalle to break with him in the Potsdam police station and steal a pass. Kalle comes with to steal the money from the till. The coup failed, the two perpetrators are arrested and imprisoned. Ten years later, Voigt is to be released from prison. The day before the warden commits with the occupants the anniversary of the victory of Sedan in the Franco-German War. Voigt, due to his self-taught knowledge appropriated answer all the questions of the director to the Prussian military system properly and may give instructions in the aftermath of the final battle. After the dismissal Voigt comes under with his sister Mary and her husband Friedrich Hoprecht, a sergeant in Berlin. But his problems are the same as ten years ago: He receives neither work nor papers.
In the 10th scene has Dr. Obermuller, who was promoted to lieutenant of the reserve and is now mayor of Köpenick, pull the maneuver, but the tailor Wormser has not yet delivered the new uniform. Angry orders Obermuller the maid to bring his old uniform. When he tried to button his tunic, the tears now much too narrow garment. But Obermuller lucky, the cutter Wabschke is at this moment with the new uniform in the door. Obermuller attracts the new uniform and gives the cutter with the old. In the 13th scene Wormsers daughter wears patched uniform as a costume in a lavish New Year's Eve ball to the turn of the century and gives a speech in front of guests.
Meanwhile Voigt receives a letter with the expulsion. After a quarrel with his brother- he walks through the city looking for a Jewish junk dealer on. There he acquires an officer's uniform. This is the original for of Schlettow prepared, then carried by Dr. Obermuller uniform. With an additional star Voigt dresses them up from captain rock and concern other equipment. He plans to acquire a command in this disguise and to get on the authority a pass for his departure. In a train station toilet Voigt moves. With some soldiers, the Voigt has placed under his command on the road, enters the wrong captain in the city hall of Köpenick one arrested the Mayor and the City Treasurer and instructed the police inspector, to bring them to the police station in Berlin. As Voigt inquired about the passport office of the Town Hall, he will be disappointed: Köpenick has no own passport office. With the money from the city treasury to make the "main man " from the dust. A few days later it Wilhelm Voigt, the police and reveals where he hid the uniform. Once you have brought them, Wilhelm Voigt is persuaded, to the amusement of the investigators into the nest again. Voigt looks in the mirror and has even laugh, but now reprimanded by officials for it and reminded of the seriousness of the breach of law and order.
Classification
The play is based on the true historical event of the Captain of Köpenick in 1906 and exposes the completely uncritical obedience to the military in imperial Germany. However Zuck Mayer wanted the piece transferred in his presence and alluding primarily to the ubiquitous since the first electoral successes of the NSDAP brew uniforms of the Nazi henchmen.
Zuckmayers play is in three acts, each with seven scenes. He treated the second and third act, the time to catch the spectacular robbery in the first act and a fictional history that takes place ten years before. Besides minor changes ( as Voigt's place of birth is laid in the vicinity of the Wuhlheide, so Voigt speaks Berlin dialect ), the main difference of the piece to reality is probably in the stylization Voigt for "noble robber ". How does Zuck Mayer ( very believable ) Voigt's self-presentation, after which the motive for his attack was solely the acquisition of a passport, which he desperately needed to restart a normal life. However, since the office in Köpenick had no passport department, the culprit is - the city treasury almost untouched - in Zuckmayers piece at the end of the police voluntarily and is for the time after his release from prison a passport promise.
The fact that Voigt unlike in reality, the complete uniform purchases from a dealer - an actually rather mundane change - gets the blue rock ' own story. By Zuckmayer imagine the previous owner in order, he takes the opportunity, the history of some minor characters ( the Köpenick mayor, for example ) against the background of a critical, sometimes exaggerated to the point of caricature description of the situation in the imperial army, traditionally a militarism society of that to tell time, the omnipresence of the military is always re-set in scene.
Individual episodes deal with the effects of the code of honor of the officer corps on the personal life and the social position of reserve officer apart or address the unconditional belief in one, down to earth ' Berliner soldiers and worker, personified in the form of Voigt's brother, a conservative non-commissioned officer, to army and state. Everyday phenomena such as the stereotypical question when looking for work "Where Hamse jedient? " And the internalized by anyone, automatic, standing at attention ' before uniform beams are shown as well as grotesque and probably of the author's imagination sprung military role games that the warden his convicts, including the here very hervortuenden Voigt, can perform to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Sedan.
Even anti-Semitic stereotypes, as they were already used in the imperial period, attacks Zuckmayer ( the avowed opponents of the emerging at the time of writing the piece Nazism was and his mother from an assimilated Jewish family originated ) in caricature fashion so as in the figure of enterprising Jewish shopkeeper Cracow or in the representation of the Jewish tailor uniform Wormser and his son, which he attributes in the stage directions certain degrees of severity of the " Jewish race characteristics " and therefore also explores the failure of Jewish assimilation in the Empire.
Reception
Joseph Goebbels -reviewed in the magazine " The attack " of 12 March 1931, the theater piece. He abused Zuck Meyer as " [ ... ] one of those asphalt writers who are wrongly issued in this democracy as a poet ," but praised the lead actor Werner Krauss and Zuckmayers criticism of the "old Prussian regime, the wicked absolutism, the slavish obedience of the East Elbe state and the bloodstained militarism ". The critic Willy Haas was the political content of the play does not go far enough. He criticized in the magazine " The literary world," the piece did not go far enough and only scratch at the surface of the political dimension of the case Voigt. 82f
In a letter to Zuckmayer Thomas Mann described the piece after a visit to the theater as "the best comedy in the world literature since Gogol's Inspector General". 5
Trivia
The figure of the city treasurer Rosencrantz indicates towards the wrong captain, he had served as a " reserve lieutenant in the 1st Field Artillery Regiment No. 27 Nassau Orange ". In the same grade and in the same unit ( with the peace Mainz ) Zuckmayer served during the First World War.
Films
That same year, the first performance of the play followed, directed by Richard Oswald, the first film for the cinema, in the Max Adalbert, who now played the role on stage, took over the title role. Albert Bassermann played the role in a 1941 resulting in American exile remake of Oswald's movie for the first time in English. Helmut Käutner, later screenwriter and initiator of Riihmann film in 1945 took on a very successful radio drama after drama. There were other films, all based on Zuckmayers piece, some with well-known actors such as Heinz Riihmann (1956) and Harald Juhnke (1997). An English editor of the Zuck Mayer 's drama was established in 1971 under the title The Captain of Koepenick ( Translator was the English playwright John Mortimer ) and was premiered in the same year with the well-known Shakespeare interpreter Paul Scofield in the title role in London.
The most important films in the overview: