170512 UE 1926. Dramaturgy on the edge of time (2024W)

In his cultural-historiographical study “1926. A Year on the Edge of Time”, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht first explores “dispositives” (“employees”, “jazz”, “dance”, etc.) in order to then thematize cultural codes and their collapse, for example in the areas of “authenticity/artificiality”, “individuality/collectivity” or “centre/periphery”. The year 1926 is thus brought to mind as an exposed year in which humanistic and enlightened norms begin to erode and undergo redefinition under the influences of industrialization, globalization and the political upheavals following the First World War. Do such ruptures also characterize dramas and performances of the Weimar Republic? This question will be examined in the course, using three plays from 1926 as study material, namely Ödön von Horváth's “Zur schönen Aussicht” (written in 1926/27, premiered in 1969), Marieluise Fleißer's “Fegefeuer in Ingolstadt” (written in 1924, premiered in 1926) and Bertolt Brecht's “Mann ist Mann” (written in 1924/26, premiered in 1926).
The first phase of the course focuses on dramaturgical analysis, and thus the question of the characters, scenes, pivot points, plot structures, spaces, languages, conflicts, themes etc. offered in the three dramas. To what extent can this potential be understood in the light of the eroding codes thematized by Gumbrecht?
In a second phase, the theater of the Weimar Republic, which often served as a forum for socio-political questions and whose innovative power in the areas of dramaturgy, theory and theater aesthetics came to an abrupt end when the NSDAP seized power, also comes into focus with the staging history. It was only after 1948 and 1968 that the return to the achievements of the 1920s brought the three authors the attention in the German-speaking world that is reflected in the subsequent performance history of the three plays. In this second phase, however, we also ask ourselves whether and under what aspects the selected dramas still have interesting potential for current productions, which can be explored in the context of staging concepts.
In this sense, the exercise combines dramaturgical, theater-historical, analytical and creative questions that characterize production-dramaturgical work.

The exercise is not aimed exclusively, but especially at students who also attend the lecture “Theater der Weimarere Republik” in the winter term.