The Divina Commedia as Model and Anti-Model for The Investigation by Peter Weiss

THE DIJ71NA COMMEDIA AS MODEL AND ANTI-MODEL FOR THE INVESTIGATION BY PETER WEISS CRITICAL REACTION TO DOCUMENTARY THEATER and particularly to Peter Weiss's The Investigation, has been predominantly negative. "Never was an author less important,"! is one theme of the criticism. The Investigation is, to date, the most extreme case of the genre of documntary theater because its text follows so closely the documents of the trial in Frankfurt and other published reports on the history of Auschwitz. This paper will not deal with the content of the play, but only with its form, in order to reveal its artistic structure. Its structure as creative effort does not spring from the writer's free imagination, but from the effort to imagine-literally to have the image before his eyes-of the things, the events, and the men of Auschwitz. Just as a collage artist does not manufacture the parts of his composition, the newspaper clippings and the rags, but uses what he finds, so Weiss forms his play from existing elements. The title and subtitle of the play, The Investigation: Oratorio in 11 Cantos, name respectively the content and the form of the play. The German title Die Ermittlung is difficult to translate. The English translation, The Investigation, stresses the judicial meaning of the German word "Ermittlung," whereas the French title, L'instruction, emphasizes the "Lehrstiick" aspect of the word, relating it to Brecht's Die Massnahme. "Ermittlung" is an abstract noun, indicating neither time nor place of action, thus separating the drama from the historical trial in Frankfurt. An "oratorium" according to Grove's is "a dramatic poem, usually of a sacred but not liturgical character ... without the assistance of scenery, dresses or action."2 The subject matter of The Investigation is a great event and, as with most oratoria, the listener is acquainted with the story. To be sure, The Investigation is not meant to be a heroic tale or a legend of martyrs. The sacred character of the oratorio has been secularized. "Canto" points 1 Badische Zeitung (Freiburg, 2 Apr. 1965). My translation, as are all the .following , except where noted. For important exceptions to the adverse criticism of the play, see Martin EssIin, "Die Ennittlung und die Grenzen des Dnmas," Die Weltwoche (20 Oct. 1965); Bruno Schacherl, "Nonnalita di Auschwitz,"· Rinascita (lO March. 1967): Gerhard Schoenbemer. "Die Ermittlung in Munchen," Die Zeit (29 Oct. 1965. New York edition). 2 Gf'OVe's Dictionary o/Music and Musicians (New York, 1954). pp. 247·248. 1 2 MODERN DRAMA May to the epic quality of the work. The word is in grotesque dissonance with Auschwitz, as grotesque as the fact that. music was an integral part of that system. As shown in Canto 173 the prisoners were forced to sing on the march to work, and this chant accompanies the listener throughout the play. Weiss has given us a further clue about his subtitle : he has called the Divina Commedia itself an "oratorium."4 Thus, Weiss's choice of the bureaucratic, unemotional sound of the main. title, Die Ermittlung7 designates the content, and with the elevated tone of the subtitle he refers to the form. They are to be understood as the thesis and antithesis of the play, its dialectic consisting of the relationship between content and form. The content quotes fragments from the Frankfurt trial, whereas the form is modelled after Dante's Divina CommediaJ as I will attempt to show. Weiss has published two major articles about Dante and the Divina Commedia. These are titled in order of publication, "Vortihung zum dreiteiligen Drama divina commedia/' and "Gesprach tiber Dante."5 Both were written in 1965, while the Frankfurt trial was in progress. Wt;iss attended the trial personally for many weeks. !twas the year of his most:intensive attempt to imagine the events on which this trial was based. Unless he' succeeded in enlarging his consciousness so as to recreate Auschwitz in his mind, he would not be able to render it ih dramatic form.6 The three stages from the monologue iIi the "Vorubting" to the dialogue in the "Gesprach" to the dramatic form in D'ie Ermittlung resemble the pr()gression from...