Talk:Rolf Hochhuth

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Does anyone know whether Hochhuth was a citizen of free Germany or communist Germany during the time he published his earlier plays? Knowing this may help one to understand the controversies relating to them.

The play Soldiers was not actually banned in the UK, as theatre censorship had ended before the play was available for production. The production of the play at the NT was cancelled, though, due to political controversy. It was soon produced in a commercial, West End production. I have clarified this in the article. Those interested should see the documentation appendiced in Laurence Olivier's autobiogrpahy, Confessions of an Actor.Jmc29

Hochhuth was, and is, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany. --84.58.216.182 00:33, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Awful article

"Hochhuth is best known for his 1963 drama Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel (The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy), a controversial theater work because of its criticism of Pope Pius XII's role in World War II. Though of little historical value and credibility, it is acknowledged as a work of considerable literary merit by some, while publisher Ed Keating and journalist Warren Hinckle, who organized a committee to defend the play as a matter of free speech, considered it "dramaturgically flawed." (If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade, 1974.) [1].

---> Why so negative?

---> "Though of little historical value and credibility" -- in fact Hochhuth's success changed the public perception of Piux XII, not to mention what we know today.

---> The text is a drama, not a "play"

---> There are other important layers: byzantinism vs. heroism, and of course the irony of modern religion: God's deputy is unable and unwilling to stop nazi crimes.

It was first produced in the United Kingdom by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 1963, and revived by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1986. It will receive only its third British production at the Finborough Theatre, London, in August 2006.

---> UK centric

The play was seen by commentators as an attempt of Hochhuth to transfer the guilt of his own parents to other, more notable, persons, thus trying to acquit his own people and relatives from consent to Nazi crimes.

---> A very superficial ad hominem reading.

---> What special guilt of his parents?

[edit] Hannah Arendt about "The Deputy"

Hannah Arendt has written a very interesting essay entitled "The Deputy: Guilt by Silence?"

Eric Bentley, Editor, Storm Over 'The Deputy' (New York: Grove Press, 1964),

Pages 85-94. I am going to quote her, her judgement about the quality of the drama.

Austerlitz -- 88.72.28.91 18:25, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References to Pacepa and Irving

The reference to the anti-Hochhuth article of Ion Mihai Pacepa on “The Deputy” („National Review“, Jan. 25, 2007) in the References and External links section should be reconsidered. A deletion of this sparsely reliable source would be resonable. German conservative historian Thomas Brechenmacher strongly challenges the plausibility of Pacepa in the foremost German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ("Hochhuths Quellen. War der 'Stellvertreter' vom KGB inspiriert?", in: F.A.Z., April 26, 2007) with reference to numerous „inconsistencies“ (the files on Pius XII. were still treasured in the Vatican’s state secretariat in 1960, Casaroli still played a subaltern role at that time and could hardly have given Romanian spymasters insight into these documents, Hochhuth’s documentary appendix “Historical Sidelights” goes back on sources „that were available in print at that time”, etc.). --Diggindeeper 13:21, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

It is highly remarkable that exactly at the time that the sanctification procedure for Pius XII initiated in 1965 has been resumed and the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints presents an outline for a decree to classify Pius XII as "adorable" to Benedict XVI in 2007, activities to defame Pius critic Rolf Hochhuth are highly en vogue again, such as Ion Mihai Pacepas strongly suggestive but less strongly investigated article in the National Review or their faint reverberations such as the addition of a polemical photograph of Hochhuth and David Irving in the article on Hochhuth... Do sacred ends actually justify every means in Wikipedia? --Diggindeeper 21:21, 30 May 2007 (UTC)