Nostalgia for a Better Germany

The challenge the Volksbuhne in Berlin faced in 1996 was to offer a new, pertinent view of Carl Zuckmayer's classic, Des Teufels General. Criticizing National Socialism for its abuse of Germany's name and German ideals, this staple of German postwar drama focuses on the question of national identity. Director Frank Castorf staged a provocative re-interpretation of the play by assigning the role of Harras, a German Luftwaffe general, to an actress in the first half of the play and to an actor in the remaining half.1 Despite the unconventional gendering of the protagonist, the contemporary performance nevertheless fell prey to the traditional conceptions of Germanness inherent in the play. The slippery road to sentimentality began in the second part of the performance. One critic noted that, while the female actor-as the queer general -transformed Harras into a figure that is kahlkopfig, glitzernd, gefahrlich, fern aller treudeutschen Biederkeit, the male actor evoked a grelles Portrait eines nun plotzlich geduckten, verschwitzten Jammerdeutschen-des Teufels General als armer Teufel und geprugelter Hund (Heinrichs 15). Harras, driven by his personal ambition of flying, collaborates with the Nazis, deutscher Mann, ein deutscher eine deutsche Eiche (Heinrichs 15). In 1996, when the quest for national identity was making headlines, Castorf's performance was seen as an attempt to re-assess the parameters of West German national identity. The ambivalence in this production reveals that the deeply ingrained postwar myth of the Wehrmacht soldier can be broken only temporarily through travesty and grotesque moments. The following historical and textual examination elucidates the dramatic strategies that construct Harras as the figure with whom the audience identified most. Harras can be read on several textual and cultural layers that the audience of the forties easily superimposed on each other. In addition to offering an interpretation of German history, the play proposes a nostalgic notion of soldierly virtues through a discourse of masculinity. Des Teufels General does not just criticize the National Socialist cult of heroism in order to proffer a new definition of humanism (Wayne 258-70). Rather, in the final scene Zuckmayer conjoins particular notions of masculinity with a narrative of self-sacrifice and atonement. The positive reviews of the play indicate that two years after the defeat of the German army and a few months after the Nuremberg trials in 1946, the interplay of historical and cultural references offered postwar German audiences a sense of conciliation and national identity. In Des Teufels General, Zuckmayer draws on his personal memories of Ernst Udet (1896-1941), his friend and a Luftwaffe general, and on his own WWI experiences. As a result, Harras is molded into a reizvolles Amalgam aus Humanismus und penetranter Mannlichkeit (Wehdeking 87), an echter deutscher Held, and a man in conflict with his conscience (Ott 411).2 This conflict becomes life-threatening when Harras, whose unabashed criticism of the Nazis is no secret, is held responsible for the sabotage of airplanes in which German pilots are killed. Following his arrest, the Nazis offer him an ultimatum. In return for his release, he has to find those responsible for the sabotage within ten days. Unexpectedly, Oderbruch, a serious and reliable engineer who worked closely with him for years, confesses to being a member of the resistance. Rather than betray his friend and the resistance movement, Harras commits suicide in one of the defective airplanes. The play concludes with the SS officer ordering a state funeral for him. Des Teufels General premiered in Zurich in December 1946 and in Hamburg in November 1947, despite the Allies' skepticism regarding its depiction of German militarism. Between 1947 and 1950 the play was performed 3,238 times in the American and British sectors, making it one of the most successful and most discussed plays in the immediate postwar years (Pfafflin 331)

Art · Art history · European history and politics · German History and Society · German legal, social, and political studies · Philosophy

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  Open Access•Nina Baur, Heather Hofmeister•The Journal of Men s Studies•2008

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