Subject: German Literature 12th form

Main topic: Limitations of the right to a free opinion and the importance of being able to utter one’s opinions freely.

Description of one of the main topics in the curriculum for teaching German in year 12 for grammar school/college level (at OSZ TIEM, Berlin):

In order to pass their A-level exam in the subject of German (literature) the students are supposed to take part in a centralised exam. This necessitates for all classes to focus their work on certain specific aspects and on certain com-pulsory texts.

For the first term of class 12 the main focus is supposed to be on: ”Life and Writing in Times of Upheaval”. The sub-topic to be dealt with is: “Language and literature in the period of National Socialism”. On the level of a basic course this includes the compulsory reading of and work on the drama “Leben des Galilei” (“Life of Galilei”) by Bertolt Brecht; whereas an advanced course has to study “Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui” (“The resistable rise of Arturo Ui”).

Both works deal with the restriction of free opinion and the manipulation of opinion in certain historical periods. Here the author is obviously trying to come to terms with the past, specifically with the darkest chapter of German history, and to attempt to draw conclusions from historical mistakes, in order to prevent them from ever happening again.

In the following paragraphs we want to describe how the current advanced course is dealing with the subject:

In the beginning of the course the students were informed about the existence of three different literary movements among German writers of literature in the years between 1933 and 1945:

Literature inspired by the ideology of National Socialism
Literature of “internal immigration”
Literature in exile (which the drama at hand belongs to)

Already at this stage it became apparent that censorship and persecution

existed, that writers had to seek refuge in other countries and to fight from

there against the unjust political regime, while others stayed in Germany

without being able to have their work published. Besides those there

were other authors, who served the new ideology by publishing apologetic texts.

Concerning the last aspect students were asked to analyse poetry in groups that

dealt with topics like: getting ready for the war, the glorification of the

dictator and attacks against dissidents. The students were extremely shocked

by the brutality, the black-and white simplifications and the glorification of

Hitler and other NS politicians expressed here.

By way of dealing with Brecht’s biography we addressed the issue of the conditions under which the drama was written in times of exile in Finland, which Brecht was forced to leave, when the German troops went on occupying one country after the other. So he applied for a visa to the USA, where he went via Leningrad, Moskow and finally on a Swedish boat from Wladiwostok.

The first public performance of

the play didn’t take place before 1959 when it was produced for the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in the eastern part of Berlin, at the time still part of the GDR. As Brecht had died in 1953, the first performance had to be realised by his students.

In a satirical way Brecht doesn’t only make the dictator look extremely ridiculous and absurd, but also the blindness of the people who supported his rise to power. At the same time he reveals the decisive role of the conservative politicians and the rich capitalists for Hitler’s way to absolute power.

A key scene of the drama is the 7^th scene, in which an actor teaches Arturo Ui how to behave in public. Here Brecht refers to the speech of Antonius in Shakespeare’s “Julius Cesar”, which shows the rhetorical devices and psychological tricks demagogues use on large crowds of people to reach their aims. To be able to recognize and to avoid this for the future is the educational effect that Brecht wanted to evoke.

Only he who recognizes how freedom can be restricted and how the mind can be manipulated is protected from following such kinds of demagogues. To teach our students this is a duty that our German history has put on our shoulders.

←