Abstract
D.Litt. et Phil.
During the last half of the Twenties a widespread movement developed in the theatre that concerned itself with critical social subjects and matters impacting on society. Such topical plays were not an innovation, but a recurrent phenomenon in literature. This type of literature may be traced from the “Sturm-und-Drang” plays, over the “Jungdeutschen” (Young Germans) period to Naturalism. However, seldom does it occur as concentrated as during the Weimar Republic. With far over a hundred plays, topical theatre dominated the stage during the period of the Republic.
The realistic topical theatre of the Twenties arose in answer to social conditions; it is an explanatory, critical theatre. War, revolution, and inflation had caused vast social changes and defects to which literature attempted to provide an answer. In the hope of improving the existing disgraceful conditions leftist and leftist-liberals took up their pens to create awareness amongst the population. The topical theatre movement considered itself a movement for the Republic. Many authors were experts in different fields rather than artists. Their aim was not to create autonomous works of art for posterity; they wanted to correct social injustices as soon as possible. Topical plays were usually written in great haste. As soon as the matter referred to lost its public interest, production of the play ceased. The plays were distinguished by their reportage style approaching journalism. As a rule, they concluded with an appeal in the audience.
Topical theatre is, in the first instance, theatre of matter or substance. Formalistically, traditional structure was maintained. The contents of the chapters of this study, therefore, are orientated to the problems governing the lives of people during this period. Once the concept and the literary-historical context of the period have been covered in chapters 1 and 2, different areas of concern are examined in the following chapters. Chapter 3 concerns itself with the lost generation of young people after the First World War, their sexual bewilderment, their schooling and educational problems. Chapter 4 explores those problems of the Republic that impacted on the every day lives of the population. Amongst these are inflation, unemployment, and lack of housing. The crisis concerning justice and the resultant loss of faith amongst the people in judgements handed down by the courts and in jurisprudence are covered in chapter 5. To this area belong an examination of individual questions of justice that concerned day-to-day life, for instance, abortion and capital punishment. The struggle for survival of the Republic is explained in chapter 6.
The increasing polarization led to severe public struggles and was reflected in plays of the Republic. An increasing number of rightist topical plays with strong propagandistic characteristics appeared. Plays depicting revolution and war dominated the stage.
Topical theatre ended with the seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933. Threads indicating a relationship between the theatre of the first Republic and the theatre of the sixties in the Federal Republic by Germany may be drawn. Period criticism and documentary style connect documentary theatre and topical theatre. The dialect folk plays of Fassbinder, Kroetz, and Sperr continue the renewal of the folk play of the Twenties in which Horváth and Fleizer introduced social criticism.