Martin Walser’s Sauspiel and the Contemporary German History Play

Martin Walser’s Sauspiel and the Contemporary German History Play Gerald A. Fetz Martin Walser, like many in his generation of German writers,1 concerned himself in his early works primarily with the problem of confronting and attempting to come to terms with the immediate German past. By confronting his readers with that unpleasant and unfortunate past, he attempted to cure the sudden case of amnesia which was an all too common reac­ tion among Germans to that past. In all of his subsequent works as well2 one finds Walser to be a writer with a keen sense for society’s — particularly West Germany’s — illusions, problems, weaknesses and injustices. His main characters are rarely grant­ ed a great deal of sympathy, and he is especially critical of those who abuse power and of those who are either so blind or so subservient that such abuse becomes not only possible, but vir­ tually inevitable. Walser is a writer who is committed to pro­ gressive social change, but, unlike Brecht, for example, he is a writer with no specific program to bring about such changes. That fact lends a note of pessimism, even resignation, to Walser’s works, but it also, perhaps, is what makes him a realist. Walser’s eighth and latest play, Das Sauspiel! (which, when literally but inadequately translated, is The Swinegame), was written five years after his seventh play, Ein Kinderspiel. The time between these two plays is significant since Das Sauspiel displays a distinct shift in style, a new theme (it is the first historical play by Walser to deal with the not-so-recent past), and a development in political thinking which leads Walser toward a more definite political stance than in his previous works. Regardless of where one places him politically (Walser places himself clearly on the left), one cannot justly accuse Walser of being politically dogmatic, of presenting a closed sys­ tem, or of having abandoned his typically critical perspective. 249 250 Comparative Drama Written in 1975 and first performed in 1976 in Hamburg, Das Sauspiel is the most recent German history play. Walser was originally asked by the city of Nuremberg to write a play to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the Reformation’s success there, but when it became clear that the play would be critical of the city’s proud “humanistic tradition,” the request was withdrawn. Walser, however, was intrigued with what he found during his research and completed the play. Walser’s interest in the Reformation-Peasants’ War period is not surprising when one considers that this era can legiti­ mately be regarded as the singular most important event or series of events in German history.4 These historic events of sixteenthcentury Germany have captured the interest and imagination of numerous German writers from Hans Sachs to Thomas Mann. They have provided the material for over one hundred and twenty German plays since 1800 alone. Unfortunately, most of these dramas have presented rather simplistic, highly partisan views of the Reformation and its main figures, based largely on the traditional portrayals passed down by theologians, historians and other writers in which fact and legend are freely mixed in spite of claims to objectivity. Among the numerous plays, how­ ever, there have been a few which attempt to show the Refor­ mation in a new and critical light, one in which the interpreta­ tion of events is not obviously Protestant or Catholic. It is the tradition of these plays which Walser’s Sauspiel interprets and extends, a tradition which extends from Hauptmann’s Florian Geyer (1896) to Dieter Forte’s controversial Luther/Müntzer oder die Einführung der Buchhaltung (1971).5 Behind these plays, which are inconceivable without it, stands the pioneering historical research of Wilhelm Zimmermann, Friedrich Engels, Ernst Bloch, and other more recent revisionist historians. Walser’s Sauspiel is also firmly based on a considerable amount of historical research, necessary because Walser wants to make substantive, accurate statements about history, about revolution, and about the Reformation in Nuremberg. He wants to destroy myths and legends and help rewrite and re-interpret the historical accounts of sixteenth-century Nuremberg. Das Sauspiel is not, however, a documentary play in the...