GEORG KAISER’S THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS

Georg Kaiser (1878-1945) wrote The Burghers of Calais (Die Burger von Calais) in 1913, a period of both national and international tension.  This three-act play was published during 1914, in Berlin by S. Fischer, shortly before World War One commenced. It did not garner much attention until 1917, when many of the German people were growing weary of the war. The Burghers of Calais gained the reputation as a powerful denunciation of war.

Gustav Landauer (1870-1919) a leading theorist on anarchism in Germany mentioned Kaiser’s play in his essay Ein Weg deutschen Geistes (A Way of the German Spirit). This essay was first published in 1916. It inspired Arthur Hellmer (1880-1961), the founder of the New Theatre in Frankfurt, to stage the premier on January 27, 1917. The message in The Burghers of Calais as well as its new style of Expressionism made it a popular choice for private theaters in other German and Austrian cities.

Scholars believe that Kaiser was inspired to write his drama by Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) sculpture Les Bourgeois de Calais, first displayed in 1889. Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) met Rodin in 1902 and the following year he wrote about this particular Rodin sculpture detailing the gestures and the sense of movement derived from this powerful piece. It is claimed by scholars that many of these details were incorporated into Kaiser’s character descriptions and stage directions.

Another possible resource used by Kaiser is the Chronicles of Jean Froissart (1337-1405).  This volume relates to events that occurred during the first part of the Hundred Years War (1326-1400). Foissart’s history includes the siege of Calais beginning in 1346 and concluded a year later. It is thought that since Kaiser uses the actual names of only four citizens involved in the events at Calais, he must have read the second edition of Froissart’s account since all six citizens are named in the fourth edition. Kaiser’s plot follows the general historical events, but he was not interested in historical accuracy. He selected historical incidents and individuals as background for creating creditable opportunities to layout his own theories about reshaping human behavior.

Act I of The Burghers of Calais takes place in 1347 at the town hall, a red-brick building with wide steps that serve as seats.  On the steps stand six of the Councilors of the city of Calais. The seventh Councilor named Eustache De Saint Pierre is seated. During this act these seven citizen leaders are faced with the choice of defending their city, which has the closest French port to the English shore. The Councilors receive the message that the French King has been defeated by King Edward III (English) as the French monarch and his soldiers were rushing to aid Calais.

 Edward III now demands six prominent citizens of Calais to be selected to bring him the keys to the city while they are dressed in sackcloth and ashes, with a rope around their necks. This surrender must happen before sunrise of the following day.  If this does not occur, Edward III claims he will have every person in the city killed as well as destroy the entire city.

Eventually, the Councilors, led by Eustache, decide to offer themselves as the sacrificial victims.  However, all seven of them volunteer. Since six are needed, they agree to meet again in the afternoon for the drawing of lots to grant life to the seventh volunteer. Act II is set in the main chamber of the city hall. The Councilors attempt the drawing of lots, but it provides no solution.

Act III takes place prior to sun-rise in the market place. It was determined in Act II that the last Councilor to arrive would be spared.  Only Eustache is missing at the appointed time. He is quickly denounced as a coward. Eustache’s ancient, blind father arrives with his son’s body. Eustache committed suicide so that the remaining six men may know the way of self-sacrifice for a common cause. It is Eustache who represents the emergence of Kaiser’s idea concerning the development of the “New Man.” Kaiser envisioned that the “New Man” embodied new values for society to embrace such as humility and love instead of power and heroism.

While The Burghers of Calais became widely produced in German speaking countries, the script was not translated into English for a number of years. I read the translation by J. M. Ritchie and Rex Last published in 1971 by Calder and Boyars Limited, London. I found a reference to a 1946 translation titled The Citizens of Calais by Bayard Quincy Morgan as well as another with the same title by Adam I. Weiss dated 1965. This latter book was published by the University of Denver and it includes two other plays and “an explanation of the Social Image Expressed in the Plays.”

The Burghers of Calais was translated into Japanese and it was produced by a theatre in Tokyo either late in 1920 or early 1921. This information appeared in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on July 2, 1922.  A 1956 production was part of an outdoor German Festival.  It was presented on the steps of St. Michael’s Cathedral at Schwarbisch Hall in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.  The steps of this historic church are a perfect setting for this play. In November, 1978 BBC Radio 3 aired its version of the play throughout many sections of England.

Kaiser’s reputation as a pacifist playwright began with The Burghers of Calais in 1917. Walter H. Sokel, in his book The Writer in Extremis: Expressionism in Twentieth-Century German Literature, considers this drama as “one of the most powerful dramas of Expressionist pacifism.”

NOTES:

1. Photo of Georg Kaiser from Georg Kaiser by B. J. Kenworthy, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1957    
2. The Burghers of Calais Statue photo by Arpingstone at English Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
   https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The.burg.of.calais.london.arp.750pix.jpg

TRANSFORMATION by ERNST TOLLER

Ernst Toller (1893-1939) began writing his first play in 1917, after having served in the German army and then being discharged as “unfit for active service”.  In 1914 he enlisted in the First Bavarian Foot Artillery Regimen and he was a patriotic enthusiast of the war effort. He served on front-line duty, which he volunteered for, from March 1915 to May 1916. It was this experience that initially altered his political beliefs and led him to write Die Wandlung (Transformation), an anti-war drama.

Transformation is a unique antiwar drama, since it is a multi-topic play that goes beyond the issue of ceasing the senseless slaughter of mankind. This play begins with the traditional type of direct anti-war message.  The issue grows beyond the suffering inflicted by war until it condemns many forms of human suffering. Finally the play segues into improving human conditions by making a political commitment to Socialism.

During the time Toller was working on this play, he was also going through his own transformation. His transformation mirrors that of the play’s protagonist, Friedrich. In 1918 Toller strongly believed that a radical transformation of German society was about to occur. 

Toller stated in 1917 that he considered the early draft of Transformation as a political pamphlet. He said that before he even finished writing this play he handed out scene five, “The Hospital”, and scene six, “The Maimed”.  He also read these two scenes at strike meetings in Heidelberg and Berlin to help spread his anti-war activism. He continued to hand out “The Hospital” into the beginning of 1918.  His motivation was to continue working for peace and civil liberties.

Gustav Landauer’s manifesto, Call to Socialism, was published in 1911. Toller read this publication during the summer of 1917 and his political thinking began to expand beyond antiwar demonstrations. Landauer, (1870-1919) a significant German theorist on anarchism, believed that it was the duty of poets and thinkers to help the rest of the population understand the need for a new political reality. Landauer’s ideas were in harmony with those individuals connected to the Expressionism movement. Toller, who was already an advocate for Expressionism, readily accepted Landauer basic ideas. 

Toller’s physical participation into the burgeoning revolutionary movement came after meeting other revolutionaries. It was Kurt Eisner (1867-1919), a German politician and journalist, who convinced Toller to participate in the Munich munitions workers strike.  After Toller’s experience in Munich and while he was in prison for his strike related participation, he expanded the thesis of Transformation to embrace his new Socialistic ideology.

Cecil Davies in his book The Plays of Ernst Toller: A Revaluation discusses how Toller’s new political views are incorporated into the play’s progression. Toller presses his antiwar message through the first seven scenes of the play.  Scenes eight through ten focus on Friedrich becoming more human rather than serving merely as a symbol. The rest of the storyline, scenes eleven through thirteen, portrays Friedrich becoming a political speaker and motivator for others to implement social change.  Davies states that Toller’s “pattern by which social change takes place is that an unusually gifted individual undergoes some kind of personal ‘conversion’ which he transmits to the masses.”  This concept, Davies asserts, is derived directly from Landauer. So the reader/audience experiences Friedrich’s transformation as it occurs in the script. Therefore, Transformation, the antiwar play, is also drama as political action.

This play belongs to an additional theatre tradition. Toller divided his script into thirteen scenes.  Instead of having these scenes separated into acts, Toller used the medieval religious dramatic tradition of having the play divided into “Stations” for its major units of organization.  The term “Station” harkens back to The Stations of the Cross. The use of Station as a dramatic unit comes with various associations such as Christ connection to Station Drama. It is also connected to Christ’s progression towards an understanding of his earthly activities and his growth as a religious figure.  Transformation is divided into six Stations.  Each Station is designated by its number while each scene is also assigned a number and often a specific title such as “FIRST STATION, Second Scene, ‘Troop Trains’”.  So the reader/audience member sees Friedrich’s advancement toward his enlightenment and newly acquired activism as akin to a religious understanding.

There is one more organizational element related to the structure of the play to be considered. Transformation has “A Prologue, which can also be thought of as Epilogue.” This section is titled “Barracks of the Dead”.  The title makes sense once the characters are identified by name—War-Death, Peace-Death and Skeletons and the location is revealed. The time is Night and the location is a vast Military Graveyard. The character names, setting as well as time of night are common to German Expressionistic plays of this era. The time and setting are similar to the beginning of Fritz von Unruh’s play Ein Geschlecht (A Generation) that I discussed in Post 19.

 I plan to continue the discussion of Toller’s use of Expressionistic characteristics in my next Post.  There will also be information regarding the production history of Transformation.

NOTE: Die Wandlung was sometimes translated into English as Transfiguration; however, it is more commonly known today as Transformation.

REFERENCE:

Toller, Ernst. Plays One. Trans. & Ed. Alan Raphael Pearlman.

 London: Oberon Books, 2011.  

(The above citation relates to the copy of Transformation that I read.  The introduction to each one of the three plays is helpful as is the additional commentary following the script. Pearlman translated the German word Bild as “Picture” instead of Scene.  On page 35 he clearly explains his rationale.)