• Seizure of Power in the Theatre. “Schlageter” by H. Johst on German stage 1930s

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2021-1-63-76

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Zoya V. Borozdinova

postgraduate students,Department of Contemporary Foreign Art
State Institute for Art Studies
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: Ohmarcello1@gmail.com

Seizure of Power in the Theatre. “Schlageter” by H. Johst on German stage 1930s

Abstract

The play “Schlageter”, based on the eponymous drama by Hanns Johst and staged at the Prussian State Theatre in Berlin on April, the 20th, 1933, was one of the first premieres after the “seizure of power” by the National Socialists on January, the 30th, 1933. The new regime managed to transform Germany’s political and socio-cultural situation in less than three months. The Ministry of Propaganda, founded in March of the same year, had already controlled German theatres’ repertoire and personnel policy. By fitting the performance into a historical context, the author of the article traces the transformation of theatre aesthetics. The author outlines the change of paradigms started by the performance “Schlageter”. The show combined some old German both expressionism and political theatre traditions and the Nazi-style features that had just begun to form. The performance demonstrated the Fuhrer – a new hero with a strong personality. Fuhrer is ready to sacrifice his life for the good of his nation but he is very cruel towards all dissents. The article uses the “reconstruction of the Performance” method. It makes possible to study the peculiarities of the director’s, artist’s, and actor’s specifics of work. It reveals the form of the communication established between the creators of the performance and the audience.

Keywords

theatre, drama, German theatre, totalitarian art, Nazism.

For citation

Borozdinova Z. V. Seizure of Power in the Theatre. “Schlageter” by H. Johst on German stage 1930s. In: Theater. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2021, no. 1, pp. 63–76.

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2021-1-63-76

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Received: 21.09.2020

Accepted: 14.02.2021