Rebecca SC French 602F2576 MA in German Studies - Rhodes ...

Mehring, on the other hand, saw the idealism of eighteenth century classics as the source of
inspiration for the people in order that they may break free from their oppression at the hands of
society. (Diamond 1980: 734) In what can be seen as a progression from Naturalist to
Expressionist theatre, the pursuit of the above “new theatre for the new art […] of emancipation
and of social regeneration” encountered several obstacles. According to Willett (1984: 29),
although the first Expressionist plays date from around 1912, they were only staged at the end of
the First World War. Interestingly, it was not just the fact of the war that delayed the production
of these plays; there was reluctance on the part of the playwrights to give voice to their highly
emotive scripts. (Gordon 1975: 35) Their fears of imperfection, particularly in the acting, were
not altogether unjustified and Gordon goes on to connect this to the difficulty in encompassing
and portraying the changing face of the Expressionist hero. From “Nietzschean Nay-Sayer, […]
the destroyer of all bourgeois traditions” around 1914, to “apostle of peace; […] a lover of
Mankind” around 1917, to “Übermensch/Gandhian manqué”, enlightened hero sans social or
political clout around 1922 (Gordon 1975: 35) – the Expressionist New Man moved between
extremes. In portraying such an ideal type, the actors were to strive for “the final removal of all
corporal disguises – clothing, skin – in order to uncover the actor's own Seele” (Gordon 1975:
35). It is easy to see how these highly charged and emotionally intense roles could potentially
fall short of the desired levels of credibility or sustainability. Interestingly, Kandinsky, in
addition to being an Expressionist painter, was also involved in theatre innovation and even
wrote a scenario, The Yellow Sound. Although this scenario was never staged, the abstract
performance theories behind it were recognised by a Munich producer as “the basis for „The
Expressionist Theatre‟” (Gordon 1975: 43) and are particularly impressive since the scenario was
written as early as 1909.
World War I and the German Revolution of 1918/1919
Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, there appeared to be a heightened sense of unity in
Imperial Germany. (Abrams in Bartram 2004: 18) Many, including Thomas Mann 9 , had
celebrated the Empire‟s unique alternative to the political systems on either side of it – Russian
autocracy on the one hand and materialist western democracy on the other. Germany's “Third
Way” was, however, somewhat of a contradiction: astonishingly progressive in matters
economic and technological, but rather philistine in its approach to Kulturleben and attitude to
political change. (Orlow 1982: 189f.) The social polarisation that was so evident on many levels
was simultaneously alleviated and reinforced by the establishment of numerous (separate)
9 See his Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, published, ironically, in the year of the German Revolution (1918).
11