Theatralisierte Geschichte: Zu Gerhart Hauptmanns Festspiel in deutschen Reimen

In 1913, Gerhart Hauptmann’s Festspiel in deutschen Reimen, neglected by research, caused a scandal unique in the German literary history of this period: Commissioned by the city of Wroclaw, it was supposed to flank the “centennial celebration” of the Prussian War of Liberation against Napoleon in traditional nationalist fashion. But the obvious pacifist tendencies of the play, resulting from a very unique definition of culture and nation by Hauptmann, led to the play’s being withdrawn from the theater’s repertoire after a few performances, and discussed aggressively in the press for months. This was due not least to the unconventional application of the instruments of art and modernity that hint more widely at the epic theater of Bertolt Brecht.