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The Disassociated Man in Buchner's Woyzeck And THE DISASSOCIATED MAN IN BUCHNER'S WOYZECK AND TOLLER'S HINKEMANN by EUGENE EGERT B. Sc., University of British Columbia, 1958 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of German We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OP BRITISH COLUMBIA October, 1961 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada. - ii - Abstract G.eorg Buchner, an anomaly in his own century, is frequently viewed as a percursor of Expressionism. With this fact in mind it is the purpose of this thesis to investigate and compare Buchner's Woyzeck and the expressionistic drama Hinkemann by Ernst Toller, noting the same basic theme which, however, gives rise to dissimular solutions. The method of investigating these analogous dramas was essentially one of research into and interpretation of the primary sources. Secondary sources (which were numerous for Buchner but scarce for Toller) were consulted as an aid in the exposition of Woyzeck and Hinkemann as separate plays. There was, however, practically no secondary material available relating directly to the problem under discussion in this work. The conclusions reached were based on private exami• nation of the two dramas. Woyzeck is a poor soldier of the 19^ century. Out of love for his "wife" he allows himself to be used as subject for a doctor's scientific experiments. Despite Woyzeck's care and passionate love for her, Marie succumbs to the desires of the.sensual drum major. Thus Woyzeck not only experiences physical abuse, but also mental anguish as a result of Marie's infidelity. Through this lonely, senseless suffering his values are put into question. Woyzeck despairs of life and expresses his total rejection of the world by murdering Marie and then by drowning himself. Hinkemann, also a common soldier, returns home from the First World War emasculated by a bullet. Fearing the loss - iii - of his wife's love and respect, he too stoops to the level of an animal to compensate for his sexual incapacity. Desiring to provide her a few pleasures, Hinkemann hires himself out to a showman who utilises him in a repulsive circus act. However, his sensual wife, like Marie, also proves unfaithful. Her seducer, Grosshahn, causes Hinkemann's prime suffering by causing him to believe that Grete laughed at him in his debased condition. Although finally convinced that she did not laugh, Hinkemann, like his counterpart Woyzeck, fails to see any good purpose in the world and gives up. He no longer has the strength to struggle and asks his wife to leave him. But Grete, afraid to live alone, commits suicide. Hinkemann goes on existing. Thus the basic pattern is the same in both: Woyzeck and Hinkemann, two soldiers in the prime of life, allow themselves to be misused for the sake of a woman's love. Both lose this love which alone gives, their life meaning. Forced into total isolation by an evil and loveless world, both Woyzeck and Hinkemann no longer see any purpose in life, but the reaction of each is different. Woyzeck reacts violently to this discovery of the lack of good purpose in the universe. Out of vengeance he wants to hurt the world that has hurt him. He ends in complete, active nihilism. Hinkemann, a man weakened by fate, reacts less violently: he comes to a passive acceptance of meaninglessness in the world. For him, struggle is in vain. Thus there is a difference in solution, resulting from an important distinction which lies at the core of these iv - plays. Buchner here deals with one basic theme: isolation ultimately leading to nihilism. Toller, in addition, deals with the problem of the complete man. The loss of either the animal or the spiritual aspect of man's nature renders him ridiculous. And for Toller, it is this ridicule which isolates man. Thus his play is more complex, it has ramifi• cations of the problem which Buchner does not explore. Also contributing to the dissimilar solutions are the authors' different views of life. Woyzeck's nihilistic end is entirely in consonance with Buchner*s fatalistic and utterly hopeless view of life. Similarly, Hinkemann's pessimistic resignation corresponds to Toller's poignant disillusionment (but not complete despair) with mankind. - V - Contents page Introduction 1 Chapter I Background of the suffering in Woyzeck 6 Chapter II "Unedles Ungluck" in Woyzeck 18• Chapter III "Edles Ungluck' in Woyzeck 32 Chapter IV Background of the suffering in Hinkemann .... 44- Chapter V "Unedles Ungluck" in Hinkemann 53 Chapter VI "Edles Ungluck" in Hinkemann 62 Conclusions 74 Footnotes • SO Bibliography 88 - 1 - Introduction Georg Buchner is frequently viewed as an important precursor of expressionistic drama. It will be the purpose of this thesis, to investigate and compare the treatment of a similar theme in his Woyzeck and in an expressionistic play: Ernst Toller's Hinkemann. Buchner was an anomaly in his own time. As an indi• vidualist he did not subscribe to the tenets of any recognised movement in literature. Nor did he have any close ties with the poets of his day, with the exception of Gutzkow to; whom he sent his Dantons Tod for publication. Like his hero, Woyzeck, Buchner stood alone. He found it increasingly impossible to endorse the political nature of Young German literature, whose members used art as propaganda to attain social and political changes. Literature became the mere tool for expressing their revolutionary views. In his letters Buchner clearly states his attitude and relation, to this journalistic group, the most Important literary movement of his time. On January 1, 1856, he wrote his family from Strassburg: "tTbrigens gehore ich fur meine Person keines- wegs zu dem sogenannten Jungen Deutschland, der literari- schen Partei Gutzkows und Heines. Nur ein volliges Miss- kennen unserer gesellschaftlichen Verhaltnisse konnte die Leute glauben machen, dass durch die Tagesliteratur eine vollige Umgestaltung unserer religiosen und gesellschaft- lichen Ideen moglich sei."'L Neither is Buchner an admirer of the Romanticism which still persisted in his time. Being a forward-looking person, - 2 - he could not tolerate nostalgic flight into medieval times and away from the realities of life as he saw them. Clari• fying his relation to the Romantics, Buchner succinctly writes to his friend Gutzkow (Strassburg, 1835): "Sie erhalten hierbei ein Bandcheri Gedichte von meinen Freunden Stober. Die Sagen sind schon, aber ich bin kein Verehrer der Manier a la Schwab und Uhland und der Partei, die immer ruckwarts ins Mittelalter greift, well sie in der Gegenwart keinen Platz ausfiillen kann." (p. 4-06) Since Buchner was ahead of his age in his preoccupation with essential humanity, it is small wonder that the Expression' ists found in him a congenial companion. In Buchner they saw a man of kindred spirit, a man who like themselves was sympathetic to the poor underdog and who yearned for a new humanity. Buchner's works, largely undiscovered until the century, attained the reputation they now enjoy through the efforts of the Expressionist generation. His Woyzeck, although written in 1835 or 1836, was not seen on the stage until 1913. It is also noteworthy that Alban Berg composed his dramatic masterpiece, the opera Wozzeck, in the era of Expressionism (1920), eighty-five years after the original work was written. Buchner is often seen as the connecting link between Expressionism and the similar, revolutionary and iconoclastic Storm and Stress movement of the 18 century. In his book on Expressionism, Walter H. Sokel writes: "The Expressionists greatly esteemed Storm and Stress authors like Lenz and Klinger. Georg Buchner forms an interesting nineteenth-century link between the Storm - 3 - and Stress and the drama of Wedekind, Johst, and Bert Brecht."' Buchner is not only a forerunner of the Expressionists in thought, but is also one of the prophets of expressionistic style. The looseness of construction, the episodic nature of scene succession, and the grotesque and aphoristic nature of the language are all indicative of what is to come in Expressionism. Indeed, the very atmosphere of Buchner*s Woyzeck has been an influence on the explosive expressionistic dramatic style. Albert Soergel goes so far as to claim: "Ohne Woyzeckstimmung oder Woyzeckzeichnung, ohne Woyzeck- blut kaum ein expressionistisches DramaI"^ Later he declares, specifically regarding Hinkemann and Woyzeck, the plays we shall be considering: "Grauen liegt uber ihr fHinkemannj, wie uber Biichners. Woyzeck, dessen Friihexpressionismus sie naher verwandt ist, als zeitgenossische expressionistische 4- Werke." Buchner*s themes of humanity, of love for mankind, of sympathy to the poor, and of revolt against a decadent society recur in Expressionism. Also, the theme of compassion for the underdog, isolated from his fellows by suffering and existential awareness, as seen in Woyzeck is frequently taken up in expressionistic literature, and perhaps nowhere in such striking similarity as in Hinkemann. Kurt Pinthus, an Expressionist associated with Toller, writes: "While still in jail, he [Toller] had written the grotesque tragedy of a victim of war, entitled Hinkemann. This play is influenced by Georg Buchner's Woyzeck, the first realistic proletarian drama, written almost one hundred years ago. Hinkemann, like Woyzeck, is a mistreated humble soldier, - 4 - who returns from the war seemingly sound, hut whose sexual 5 potency has been destroyed by shrapnel."^ We shall treat the suffering of these two soldiers, Woyzeck and Hinkemann, in the frame of reference as given by Max Brod in his book Heidentum, Christentum, Judentum, one of the great source books of Expressionist thought.
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