Germany on the London Stage

VOLUME 13 NO.6 JUNE 2013 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees Germany on the London stage t is not often that the London stage to the aspiring young local politician plays host to two productions about Obermüller, at that stage also a junior IGermany in quick succession. The officer in the army reserve, and ends up first, The Captain of Köpenick, an English in a cheap Jewish second-hand clothes adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer’s classic shop. There Voigt acquires it for his daring comedy Der Hauptmann von Köpenick impersonation of an army officer, in which (1931) and starring Anthony Sher, had a re- his principal victim is none other than the cent run at the National Theatre, while the unfortunate Obermüller, now mayor of second, a stage adaptation of Kressmann Köpenick. Taylor’s short novel Address Unknown Zuckmayer ironically subtitled his (1938), opens at the Soho Theatre later comedy ‘ein deutsches Märchen in drei this month. Both throw light on the trou- Akten’, a modern ‘German fairy tale in bled history of Germany in the first half three acts’, in which an unemployed of the last century, though the adapta- cobbler disguised as an army officer tion of The Captain of Köpenick restyled triumphs over a soulless bureaucratic much of the play into knockabout farce. Old friends: Martin Schulse and Max machine bent on denying him his basic That was a missed opportunity, for Eisenstein (Address Unknown) rights. The play’s vibrancy and lasting Zuckmayer’s play, based on a real incident soulless police offices, seedy bars, a prison appeal derive from its skilful exploitation that occurred in 1906, is the model and a dosshouse, while the other develops of its principal comic theme: the collision of a very funny play that has serious the story of the uniform. After initially between self-important bureaucrats, points to make. Those who mistakenly adorning the person of a Prussian officer, pedantically insistent on the observance believe that there is no such thing as Captain von Schlettow, the uniform passes continued overleaf German comedy would do well to compare Zuckmayer’s comic masterpiece with its British contemporaries, the best-known Kindertransport 75th Anniversary of which are ‘Oh Dahling’ comedies by or anyone who has not yet signed up, there are still some places for the Kindertransport Reunion at JFS on Sunday 23 June. Noel Coward or farces like Rookery Nook. FTo date, we have registered some 350 guests, including Kinder and their families, There are few works of literature that from Australia, Germany, the USA, Israel, Italy and Switzerland as well as across the UK. challenge the authoritarian mentality more We are delighted that the actress Maureen Lipman, who starred in The Pianist, the effectively, and with greater comic force, former Foreign Secretary the Rt Hon David Miliband MP, whose father was a refugee from than Der Hauptmann von Köpenick. It was Nazi oppression, and Sir Andrew Burns, the UK Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, will be inspired by the exploits of a petty criminal the guest speakers. The day will begin with registration at 1:30 pm and end after a light and unemployed cobbler, Wilhelm Voigt, supper at 7 pm. As part of the proceedings, JFS pupils will be performing a re-enactment of the debate who, in desperation at his inability to in the House of Commons which precipitated the creation of the Kindertransport, and the obtain papers officially permitting him to JFS Choir will be singing a selection of evocative songs. work and live in Berlin, acquired a second- Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, whose grandfather Dr Georg Salzberger was the Rabbi of hand captain’s uniform, commandeered the Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main, the interior of which was destroyed on a unit of soldiers, marched them off to Kristallnacht, will lead a service of remembrance, and there will be an opportunity to view the town hall of the south-eastern suburb the new exhibition on the Kindertransport which the Wiener Library is curating. of Köpenick, declared a state of siege, To register for this historic gathering, please call AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070 or email [email protected] arrested the mayor and absconded with Kinder and their families may also wish to participate in the Symposium on the the contents of the borough treasury. The Kindertransport which the Leo Baeck Institute London is organising in co-operation with way in which everyone he encountered, the German Historical Institute London (GHIL), the Research Centre for German and Austrian soldiers and civilians, kowtowed to the all- Exile Studies, and Aberystwyth University (School of European Languages) on Tuesday 25 powerful aura of the army uniform caused June at the GHIL. You can see a provisional programme for the day on our website at www. a storm of hilarity across Germany. ajr.org.uk and details on booking can be obtained at [email protected] The drama’s action skilfully weaves Please also encourage the children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews of AJR members to come along to a Special Reception at the Wiener Library for the Second and together the stories of its two main agents, Third Generations between 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm on Monday 24 June. The focus of this Voigt and the uniform, over a period of event will be how their parents and grandparents arrived here, where they came from, and some ten years, before bringing them the various ways in which they travelled. There will be notable guest speakers and time together for the climax at Köpenick. to socialise and network, eat and drink, and meet old friends and make new ones. Please One strand of the action traces Voigt’s direct any queries to [email protected] or visit the organisers’ websites dispiriting quest for the papers that would www.secondgeneration.org.uk and www.kindertransport.org Sir Erich Reich allow him a stable life, through scenes in AJR JOURNAL JUNE 2013 Germany on the London stage continued of administrative regulations, and the ing her story entirely through the letters use of violence: ‘But these things pass; if slyly disrespectful, Schweikian outsider, of her two protagonists, allowing the the end in view is right they pass and are who uses the tools of wit and irony to deterioration in their relationship and forgotten. History writes a clean new page.’ undermine pompous officialdom and the reasons for it to emerge from their A less than convincing attempt to justify who successfully turns the system’s own words, with no narrator or autho- the persecution of defenceless minorities. own weapons against it in his escapade rial comment intervening. The hallmark Sure enough, by July 1933 Schulse at Köpenick. Zuckmayer’s attack of the epistolary novel has always been has become a loyal Nazi, seeing Hitler as on militarism and the authoritarian, to allow the reader direct, unmediated the great Leader sent to rescue Germany hierarchical mentality that flourished in access to the thoughts, feelings and mo- from the morass of defeat and poverty. imperial Germany is clad in exuberant, tives – real, pretended or concealed – of He now argues that Eisenstein’s horrified often hilarious comedy. He satirises the its characters. That applies to texts where condemnation of Nazi outrages merely military spirit that pervaded so many the reader enters the emotional world of demonstrates the defects innate in those of German institutions, for example by a single figure, as in Goethe’s Die Leiden Jewish race, and that it is those defects that showing how Voigt gains the knowledge des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young are to blame for the persecution visited of the Prussian army that enables him to Werther) (1774), or those which chart the on the Jews. In line with his new-found pull off his impersonation from a spell in relations between two characters, like Nazi beliefs, Schulse insists to Eisenstein Sonnenburg prison (of all places), where Helene Hanff’s 84, Charing Cross Road that their correspondence must cease. the governor is bent on instilling patriotic, (1970), or those written from multiple But Eisenstein is forced to disregard his military behaviour in his charges. perspectives, like Choderlos de Laclos’s ex-friend’s demand, in his desperation to The drama is also a variation on the per- Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous discover what has happened to his sister, ennial literary theme of ‘Kleider machen Liaisons) (1782). who, having rashly accepted a role on Leute’, illustrating how people are judged Address Unknown begins as a corre- the Berlin stage, has now disappeared. (or misjudged) according to the clothes spondence between two old friends, as Schulse’s reply to Eisenstein’s pleas is they wear. In this case, the uniform Eisenstein in San Francisco expresses chilling. ‘Heil Hitler!’, it begins. ‘I much guarantees the success of Voigt’s ruse, his envy of Schulse’s return to pre- regret that I have bad news for you. Your thereby demonstrating the continuing Hitler Germany. But the cordial tone of sister is dead.’ From Schulse’s account of hold of authoritarian, militaristic attitudes Schulse’s reply of December 1932 cannot events, the reader can deduce that Griselle on the civilian population of a supposedly conceal the weaknesses in his character: has fled to Munich, but that Schulse has constitutional, democratic state and the while lamenting the poverty afflicting refused her refuge, out of naked cowardice continuing unthinking deference of civil- Germany, he boasts from Munich of and fear for his position, leaving her to ians, up to and including the mayor of the palatial residence that he has been the tender mercies of the pursuing Storm Köpenick, to the militarised symbols and able to pick up cheap, and his decision Troopers.

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