Drums in the Night

Drums in the Night is a drama by Bertolt Brecht. 1919 emerged as Brecht's Baal second piece was Drums in the Night at its premiere in September 1922, the first Brecht play that was staged. In the same year we paid tribute to Brecht for the Kleist Prize.

Action

The play is set in 1919 against the background of the Spartacus revolt. Anna Balickes fiance Andreas Kragler was an artilleryman in the First World War and has been missing for four years. After long hesitation, agrees Anna, as desired by their parents, in the engagement with the war profiteers Murk one. On the day of engagement suddenly emerges Kragler, who claims to have been in Africa in captivity. Anna's parents and Murk treat the have-not a troublemaker; and Anna, who is already pregnant by Murk, Kragler asks to go first. While this is briefly joining the insurgents, Anna finally leaves the Murk and confesses Kragler her pregnancy. Kragler ultimately decides against it, to participate in the fighting and for Anna. Take its place among the fighters he refuses, saying: My flesh shall rot in the gutter, that your idea of ​​going to heaven? Are you drunk?

Genesis, the first performances

The piece was created in a first, no longer extant version, in February 1919 under the title Spartacus. Thematically, it is closely linked with the revolutionary struggles in Germany 1918/1919. Detailed and passages, as well as dialogues in the headlines can style suggest that Brecht has processed both by direct personal impressions here, as well as press reports einbezog. Lion Feuchtwanger commented in March 1919 thrilled he especially praised the "wild, bold, colorful language, not read together from books [ ... ] ". The renaming of the piece of Spartacus to Drums in the Night was carried out on a council Marta Feuchtwanger. The piece was initially not listed, Brecht made ​​several unsuccessful attempts to revise it.

On September 29, 1922 was finally premiered in Munich Chamber Play, directed by Otto Falkenberg, thus Drums in the Night was the first piece listed Brecht. At the first performance in the auditorium were posters with slogans such as " Do not stare so romantically ." Actors were, among others, Maria Koppenhöfer, Erwin Faber, Hans Leibelt and Kurt Horwitz. At the premiere guests belonged Karl Valentin.

The arrived from Berlin theater critic Herbert Jhering wrote on October 5, 1922 in Berlin stock exchange Courier: " The twenty-four year old writer Bert Brecht has overnight changed the poetic face of Germany." Jhering it was, the Brecht adopted as the carrier of the Kleist Prize, with which the poet was awarded on 21 November 1922.

On 20 December 1922, the piece also at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin Premiere. In the samples for this purpose Helene Weigel, Brecht had met. The drama was here but a failure and was discontinued after a few weeks.

Revisions

Brecht took several more times corrections to the piece before, so in 1922 when he ran extensive pieces of text in the 4th and 5th act. This version was released in late 1922 in Munich publishing three masks. The early fifties there was a further revision, as published by Suhrkamp an edition of his early pieces should appear. The plot has now been clearly placed in the context of the Berlin January fights ( Spartacist uprising ) and there have been numerous details complemented Berlin. Brecht marked the piece now as a comedy.

With Karl Valentin, he parodied the song in 1922, the Munich Chamber games. Brecht was a close friend of Karl Valentin, he as an artist very much appreciated.