Rolf Hochhuth
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Rolf Hochhuth (born April 1, 1931 in Eschwege) is a German author and playwright. He was a citizen of West Germany before reunification.
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[edit] The Deputy
Hochhuth's plays include his 1963 drama Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel (The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy), a controversial play because of its criticism of Pope Pius XII's role in World War II. In the UK and some other English-speaking countries, the play is usually known by the title The Representative. It is regarded by some as a work of considerable literary merit, while others have considered it "dramaturgically flawed" but have defended it as a matter of free speech. In 2007, Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former Romanian spymaster, alleged that the play was part of a larger KGB campaign to discredit Pius XII [1]; this account was however disputed in a leading German newspaper [2].
The play is seen by others as a detailed and well-documented study of the Vatican's failure, in the person of Pope Pius XII, to challenge the Nazi holocaust.
The play in its unedited version is over five hours long and also includes the true story of Kurt Gerstein, a devout Protestant and later a member of the SS who wrote an eyewitness report about the gas chambers, and after the war mysteriously died as a POW. [2].
[edit] Productions of The Deputy
The play was first performed in Berlin on February 20, 1963 under the direction of Erwin Piscator.
It received its first English production in London by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre in 1963 in a translation by Robert David MacDonald. It was directed by Clifford Williams with Alan Webb/Eric Porter as Pius XII, Alec McCowen as Father Fontana, and Ian Richardson.
In the UK, it has since been revived by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1986 and at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2006.
An abridged version opened on Broadway on 26 February 1964 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre with Emlyn Williams as Pius XII and Jeremy Brett as Father Fontana. The play ran for 316 performances.
[edit] Film adaptation of The Deputy
The Deputy was made into a film Amen. by Costa Gavras in 2002.
[edit] Soldiers
Hochhuth's next play, Soldiers, Necrology on Geneva (1967) alleges that Winston Churchill was responsible for the death of the Polish Prime Minister General Władysław Sikorski in an airplane crash in 1943, challenging the official version of events as an accident, and claiming that General Sikorski had been murdered on Churchill's orders.
This theme of the play has overshadowed the main thrust of the drama which is a debate on the ethics of area bombing of civilian areas by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War with particular reference to Operation Gomorrah, the Royal Air Force firestorm raids on Hamburg in 1943, and culminating in a lengthy debate between Winston Churchill and the pacifist George Bell, Bishop of Chichester.
The play partially drew on the work of the young British historian David Irving, who later became notorious as a holocaust denier. Since that time, Irving and Hochhuth have been close friends and in 2005 Hochhuth drew criticism as he defended his friend against being a holocaust denier, calling the charge "idiotic" and Irving "an honourable man".
[edit] Productions of Soldiers
Controversy arose in the UK when the mooted premiere at Britain's National Theatre was cancelled, due to the intervention of the National Theatre board, but the play was produced soon after in the West End with John Colicos in the cast. The English translation was again by Robert David MacDonald. In the UK, the play was seen on tour in the early 1990's, and received much critical acclaim and full houses when revived at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2004.
[edit] Other Works
In 1978, his novel A Love in Germany about an affair between a Polish POW and a German woman in World War II stirred up a debate about the past of Hans Filbinger, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg who had been a Navy lawyer and judge at the end of World War II and allegedly was responsible for death sentences. This debate resulted in Filbinger's resignation.
His 1987 drama Alan Turing featured one of the fathers of modern computer science, who had made significant contributions to breaking German ciphers during World War II. The play also covered Turing's homosexuality.
In 2004, he again caused controversy with the play McKinsey is Coming, which raises the questions of unemployment, social justice and a "right to work". A passage in which he put the chairman of the Deutsche Bank in one line with leading business men who had been murdered by left-wing terrorists and also with Gessler, the villainous bailiff killed by William Tell.
Other works include Guerrillas (1970), The Midwife (1972), and The Survivor (1981).
Hochhuth has also collaborated with scripts for cinema and television:
- Berliner Antigone (1968)
- Élo Antigoné (1968)
- Ärztinnen (1984)
- Effis Nacht (1998)
- Eine Liebe in Deutschland (1983)
Hochhuth was awarded the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis in 1980 for his work, Eine Liebe in Deutschland.
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- Barasch-Rubinstein, Emanuela. The devil, the saints, and the church: reading Hochhuth's The deputy. New York: P. Lang, 2004.
- Bentley, Eric. The storm over The deputy. New York: Grove Press, 1964.
- Rennison, Lucinda Jane. Rolf Hochhuth's interpretation of history, and its effect on the content, form and reception of his dramatic work. Durham: University of Durham, 1991.
- Tynan, Kathleen. The file on 'Soldiers': historical notes on Rolf Hochhuth's play. London: Battley Bros., [1968].
- Ward, Margaret E. Rolf Hochhuth. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977.
- "The Year They Tried To Block The Deputy" by Warren Hinckle, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities, Volume XIII, Number 3, Fall, 1997
- German Kurt Gerstein website
- Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican, by Ion Mihai Pacepa
[edit] References
[edit] External links
