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under the Nazis were not limited to the time between 1933 and
1945.
The most important ‘new’ dramatic form to emerge after 1933, the
‘Thing’ plays, were long regarded as a genuine Nazi art form.
William Niven, however, makes clear that ‘Thing’ plays owed as
much to Catholic passion plays and open-air theatre as to more ‘suspicious’
art forms such as socialist workers’ theatre and Expressionist
drama. In fact, ‘Thing’ plays were far from original. Apart from this,
the most interesting question is why Goebbels had virtually put a
stop to the much-heralded ‘Thing’ movement by the end of 1935.
There were several reasons for the decision. Apart from technical and
financial difficulties, the uncertainties of the weather and the challenge
posed by political spectacles, which seemed far more theatrical,
certainly figure prominently. But Niven overemphasizes the importance
of the ‘Thing’ movement’s Weimar roots, which, he claims,
‘became a threat to the political system’ (p. 54). It is questionable
whether audiences and officials alike perceived every performance of
a ‘Thing’ play only as a vivid reminder of the ‘degenerate’ Weimar
years. And even if some may have recognized close links to the workers’
theatre of the 1920s, this was almost certainly not the prime reason
for the movement’s failure. Rather more important was the lack
of popular support because of the plays’ poor quality and lack of theatricality.
After a short period of public enthusiasm, the static displays
of hundreds of extras, slow movement, declamatory speeches
and lengthy plots, the presentation of ideas rather than characters,
and the predictable outcome of the plays increasingly bored audiences
and were major reasons for their ultimate failure. In any case,
the end of the ‘Thing’ experiment made way for a restoration of the
bourgeois theatre and its established theatrical forms.
Glen Gadberry in the following article presents a group of plays
which profited from this move: history plays. A genre which had
existed before 1933 became quite successful thereafter and accounted
for the majority of ‘serious’ dramas written and performed during
the Third Reich. The Nazis strongly endorsed the genre as the plays
were seen as ‘a viable and memorable means to reassess the past’ (p.
97). Topics from medieval and Prussian times proved especially
popular. �rederick the Great, Bismarck, and Henry IV were presented
as heroic figures in remarkable struggles against evil forces in
order to demonstrate the greatness of German history. Gadberry
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