Interview with Martin Walser

INTERVIEW WITH MARTIN WALSER MARTIN WALSER WAS BORN IN Wasserburg (Bodensee) on Lake· Constance in .1927. His parents were inn-keepers and also owners of a small coal business. As a result, Martin Walser was surrounded by the local folk during his early youth. He listened to them talk, became fascinated with their speech patterns, their intonations, their peculiar way of stating ideas, their emotions and their simple and earthy mannerisms. Itinerant acting companies, choral societies and traveling circuses also attracted his attention. When Martin Walser's father died, the young man, at an early age, was obliged to help out at the inn and in the family's coal business. After completing his primary education, Martin Walser went to the University of Tiibingen to study philosophy, literature and history . He was awarded a doctorate degree. His dissertation on Kafka was published in 1952. Walser then worked for a newspaper and magazine and in 1955 was awarded the prize offered by the Groupe of 47 for his story Templones Ende. Two years later he was given the Hermann Hesse Prize for Marriage in Philipsburg. He is also the author of many essays, novels, radio plays, and theatrical works including The Stupid Ones (1952), Cantata on the Cellar Steps (1953), Half-Time (1960), The Detour (1961), The Rabbit Race (1962), and The Black Swann (1964). Martin Walser is a man deeply rooted to his soil-the beautiful Lake Constance region-which is nearly always personified in his works; a man whose writings are not the fruit of intellectual exercises, but rather the result of profound and tormenting experiences-authentic outpourings of an inner world. Q. How did you become interested in the theater? A. The reasons are many. One is not always aware of them all. One in particular stands out most distinctly in my mind. It stems from my youth and the choral society which used to give performances in my home town. The performances of this group inspired me to write dramatic works. Even when writing my novels I used to insert dialogue into the narrative parts every now and then. I thought that dialogue should have a certain solidity: it should be used at the right time and create the proper atmosphere. My novels are actually the monologues of a conscience. It took a long time for me to develop the confidence necessary to write plays: to feel myself capable of writing in dialogue 316 1970 INTERVIEW WITH MARTIN WALSER 317 form. I believe that my early works suffered because of the demands I made upon myself in this connection: in terms of the sharpness and solidity of the dialogue. Q. What was your first play? A. ' The Detour. Q. You had already written radio plays before that time. A. Yes. Five or six. But of all my radio plays only one really had structured dialogue: An Endless Afternoon. The rest of them-and this despite certain opinions voiced on the subject-are monologues rather than dialogues. Q. Could you tell us something about The Detour: about its characters , its point of view? Some critics said that you were a member of the "Absurdist" group of playwrights. Would you consider this true? A. Certainly not. I consider The Detour a realistic play. A woman, the wife of a locomotive engineer, tries to rectify a wrong done to her long ago. She tries to punish her former lover who had deserted her. She needs her husband's help, however, to accomplish her mission. Her former lover is a wealthy man: "A Gentleman." Her husband sides with the wealthy man. The two men understand each other perfectly and this, despite their social differences. The wife, therefore, remains alone-on the outside. In both the prologue and the epilogue one sees the rich man with his chauffeur. Here too, there are social differences in their relationship : the chauffeur living in a state of subservience. I can understand why certain critics would label my play "a theater of the absurd" drama. The word was stylish when the play was written. The critics enjoyed using it. The Detour tells a story which could not possibly occur in real life. It is clearer than...