"Bewältigung der Vergangenheit" or "Überwältigung der Befangenheit" —: Nazism and the War in Post-War German Theatre

"Bewaltigung der Vergangenheit" or "Uberwaltigung der Befangenheit" Nazism and the War in Post-War German Theatre MICHAEL PATTERSON Half a century after the outbreak of what Brecht was fond of calling "Hitler's war," we can look back and see that modem German playwriting was debilitated for some time by an almost obsessive ifunderstandable concern with the recent past. It is of course much easier to come to terms with one's past if one is on the winning side. As one ofthe Argentinian generals, who was asked at the time of the Falklands I Malvinas crisis why his government issued false reports about the conduct of the campaign, answered: "But you always lie when you're losing." So this coming to terms with the past, this "Bewiiltigung der Vergangenheit," which so preoccupied the German nation and its theatre in the post-war years, may have been characterized at times by a measure of self-deception or even downright dishonesty, but at least the Germans were compelled to take a long hard look at themselves in a way that the Allies would no doubt have benefited from. The first significant attempt to come to terms with the German past was the product, surprisingly, ofsomeone who had not set foot in Germany since 1936. He was Carl Zuckmayer, whose play Des Teufels General (The Devil's General) was premiered in Zurich in 1946. Zuckmayer gained his apprenticeship as a playwright during the Expressionist period, and his first play Kreuzweg (Crossroads), performed unsuccessfully in Berlin in 1920, bears all the hallmarks of Expressionism right down to the opening stage-direction which states: "The play has no historical background.'" This is worth remembering, for, despite all the apparent realism of Des Teufels General and despite its seeming concern with factual reality, the piece will be seen still to owe much to Expressionism. It was in fact written while Zuckmayer was living in exile as a farmer in Vermont in the United States. The inspiration for the plot was provided by a newspaper article of December 1941, telling of the death in his own aeroplane Nazism and Post-War Gennan Theatre 121 of a fonner World War One flying ace, Ernst Udet, now a general in Hitler's Luftwaffe. Zuckmayer was at once reminded of the words Udet had spoken to him at their last meeting in Berlin in 1936: "I ... have given myselfup to flying. I can no longer escape. But one day the devil will come for all of us.'" After its premiere in 1946 Des Teufels General became immensely popular. By 1950 it had been perfonned over two thousand times, and by 1955 over five thousand. This might in itself be a historical curiosity, were it not for the fact that this popularity has tended to suggest that the play is a significant contribution to an understanding of Nazism, whereas its real interest is as a contribution to understanding how people came to tenns with the Fascist past. The central figure, based on Udet, is General Harras. He is a stylish, manly character, bravely contemptuous of the Nazi regime, which at the time of the play (1941) is trying to bring the campaign on the eastern front to a successful conclusion.. One cause of the setbacks in Russia is the repeated mechanical failure of new aircraft. Harras is suspected of sabotage and interrogated at Gestapo headquarters, and is released on condition that he find the saboteur within ten days. He begins an investigation with his chief engineer and dependable friend, Oderbruch. Witb only minutes to spare, he discovers that it is Oderbruch himself who is responsible for the acts of sabotage. Rejecting the possibility of escape, Harras climbs into a defective aircraft and commits a spectacular suicide. In itself the plot could pennit of a serious analysis of the phenomenon of Fascism and tbe possibilities for opposing it. Indeed, this is precisely what most audiences no doubt imagine that it does provide. However, as we shall see, the play in fact does not offer an analysis but rather helps to create or perpetuate a myth, a myth that must have seemed particularly useful to the occupying authorities in post-war Gennany...