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Hoppla, Wir Leben!
Tollers Stück, das der Neuen Sachlichkeit der zwanziger Jahre zuzurechnen ist, vergegenwärtigt in einer Revue von Bildern den Zustand der Weimarer Gesellschaft in der kurzen wirtschaftlichen Blütephase zwischen 1923 und 1929; auf diese Periode der scheinbaren Stabilisierung bezieht sich auch der dem den dritten Akt einleitenden Lied von Walter Mehring entnommene Titel. Die Szenenfolge gibt einen Querschnitt durch die verschiedenen Gesellschaftsschichten, vom Proletariat bis zur Aristokratie; der revolutionäre Optimismus der unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit ist verschwunden, reduziert zu einer »romantische(n) Episode der Jugend«, das private Arrangement mit den Verhältnissen dominiert, die alten Mächte - Kapital und Militär - haben wieder die Oberhand. Dem entspricht der resignative Schluß, der bei der Vorbereitung der Aufführung immer wieder zu Diskussionen Anlaß gab und als zu »defaitistisch« (E. Piscator) kritisiert wurde. Toller verstärkt die Wirkungskraft seiner zeitkritischen Reportage durch die Verwendung der von Piscator entwickelten szenischen Experimente und den Einsatz der neuen Medien Radio und Film; Radiomeldungen, filmische Zwischenspiele und -bilder vermitteln zwischen den einzelnen Schausplätzen des Stücks.
151 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1928
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About the author
Ernst Toller
103 books29 followersErnst Toller (1 December 1893 – 22 May 1939) was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days.
Ernst Toller was born in Samotschin, Province of Posen, Prussia in 1893 into a Jewish family. At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for military duty, spent thirteen months on the Western Front, and suffered a complete physical and psychological collapse. His first drama, Transformation (Die Wandlung), was to be inspired by his wartime experiences.
Toller was involved in the 1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic, along with other leading anarchists – such as B. Traven and Gustav Landauer – and communists. Toller served as President from April 6 to April 12. It has been said that as a playwright, he was not very good at dealing with politics, and his government did little to restore order in Munich. His government members were also not always well-chosen. For instance, the Foreign Affairs Deputy Dr. Franz Lipp (who had been admitted several times to psychiatric hospitals), declared war on Switzerland over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Soviet Republic. He also informed Vladimir Lenin via cable that the ousted former Minister-President Hoffmann had fled to Bamberg and taken the key to the ministry toilet with him. On Palm Sunday, April 1919, the Communist Party seized power, with Eugen Leviné as their leader. The republic was short-lived and was defeated by right-wing forces. Toller was imprisoned for his part in the revolution.
While imprisoned, he completed work on Transformation, which premiered in Berlin under the direction of Karlheinz Martin in September 1919. At the time of Transformation's hundredth performance, the Bavarian government offered Toller a pardon, which the writer refused out of solidarity with other political prisoners. Toller would go on to write some of his most celebrated works in prison, including the dramas Masses Man (Masse Mensch), The Machine Breakers (Die Maschinenstürmer), Hinkemann, the German (Der deutsche Hinkemann), and many poems.
It would not be until after his release from prison in July 1925 that he would finally see a performance of one of his plays. In 1925, the most famous of his later dramas, Hoppla, We're Alive! (Hoppla, wir Leben!) directed by Erwin Piscator, premiered in Berlin. It tells the story of a revolutionary who is discharged from a mental hospital after eight years to discover that his once-revolutionary comrades have grown complacent and hopelessly compromised within the system they once opposed. In despair, he kills himself.
In 1933, after the Nazi rise to power, he was exiled from Germany. His citizenship was nullified by the Nazi government later that year. He traveled to London and participated as co-director in the Manchester production of his play Rake Out the Fires (Feuer aus den Kesseln) in 1935.
He went on a lecture tour of the United States and Canada in 1936 and 1937, before settling in California, where he worked on screenplays which remained unproduced. Toller moved to New York City in 1936, where he lived with a group of artists and writers in exile, including Klaus Mann, Erika Mann and Therese Giehse.
Suffering from deep depression (his sister and brother had been arrested and sent to concentration camps) and financial woes (he had given all his money to Spanish Civil War refugees), Toller committed suicide by hanging in his hotel room at the Mayflower Hotel on May 22, 1939.
The English author Robert Payne who knew Toller in Spain and in Paris writes at the end of the entry for May 23rd, 1942 in his Chungking diaries, "Forever China," that almost Toller's last words to him were: "If ever you read that I committed suicide, I beg you not to believe it." Payne continues: "He hanged himself with the silk cord of his nightgown in a hotel in New York two years ago. This is what the newspapers said at the time, but I continue to bel
Ernst Toller was born in Samotschin, Province of Posen, Prussia in 1893 into a Jewish family. At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for military duty, spent thirteen months on the Western Front, and suffered a complete physical and psychological collapse. His first drama, Transformation (Die Wandlung), was to be inspired by his wartime experiences.
Toller was involved in the 1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic, along with other leading anarchists – such as B. Traven and Gustav Landauer – and communists. Toller served as President from April 6 to April 12. It has been said that as a playwright, he was not very good at dealing with politics, and his government did little to restore order in Munich. His government members were also not always well-chosen. For instance, the Foreign Affairs Deputy Dr. Franz Lipp (who had been admitted several times to psychiatric hospitals), declared war on Switzerland over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Soviet Republic. He also informed Vladimir Lenin via cable that the ousted former Minister-President Hoffmann had fled to Bamberg and taken the key to the ministry toilet with him. On Palm Sunday, April 1919, the Communist Party seized power, with Eugen Leviné as their leader. The republic was short-lived and was defeated by right-wing forces. Toller was imprisoned for his part in the revolution.
While imprisoned, he completed work on Transformation, which premiered in Berlin under the direction of Karlheinz Martin in September 1919. At the time of Transformation's hundredth performance, the Bavarian government offered Toller a pardon, which the writer refused out of solidarity with other political prisoners. Toller would go on to write some of his most celebrated works in prison, including the dramas Masses Man (Masse Mensch), The Machine Breakers (Die Maschinenstürmer), Hinkemann, the German (Der deutsche Hinkemann), and many poems.
It would not be until after his release from prison in July 1925 that he would finally see a performance of one of his plays. In 1925, the most famous of his later dramas, Hoppla, We're Alive! (Hoppla, wir Leben!) directed by Erwin Piscator, premiered in Berlin. It tells the story of a revolutionary who is discharged from a mental hospital after eight years to discover that his once-revolutionary comrades have grown complacent and hopelessly compromised within the system they once opposed. In despair, he kills himself.
In 1933, after the Nazi rise to power, he was exiled from Germany. His citizenship was nullified by the Nazi government later that year. He traveled to London and participated as co-director in the Manchester production of his play Rake Out the Fires (Feuer aus den Kesseln) in 1935.
He went on a lecture tour of the United States and Canada in 1936 and 1937, before settling in California, where he worked on screenplays which remained unproduced. Toller moved to New York City in 1936, where he lived with a group of artists and writers in exile, including Klaus Mann, Erika Mann and Therese Giehse.
Suffering from deep depression (his sister and brother had been arrested and sent to concentration camps) and financial woes (he had given all his money to Spanish Civil War refugees), Toller committed suicide by hanging in his hotel room at the Mayflower Hotel on May 22, 1939.
The English author Robert Payne who knew Toller in Spain and in Paris writes at the end of the entry for May 23rd, 1942 in his Chungking diaries, "Forever China," that almost Toller's last words to him were: "If ever you read that I committed suicide, I beg you not to believe it." Payne continues: "He hanged himself with the silk cord of his nightgown in a hotel in New York two years ago. This is what the newspapers said at the time, but I continue to bel
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 20, 2015
Hoppla
The action of the play takes passes in many countries eight years after the suppression of a rebellio, period 1927
Hoppla is really wonderful. It opens with 7 people in prison sentenced to death for their participation in the revolution. They share a ciggerette and contemplate death, and escape. It seems hopeless but at the last minute they are spared and set free. One man isn't freed and one man spends the next 7 years in a mental institution. The story starts properly when he is freed.
Beatrix's character is the young woman revolutionary Eva Berg. At 17 Eva was sentenced to death and was there with her boyfriend, Karl Thomas. When Karl finds her later she is 24 and working in a factory, she is brought before the executive because she has been addressing women's rights in the factories. She is unrepeantant in her desire to stand up for what she believes in. When her lover returns to stay with her she says she doesn't want him there. She refutes her claims that she is his, that sex has to mean anything but that there are far more significant things in the world. She returns having lots her job and agrees to go away with him as she can't do anything now, her frustration at being a woman in a relationship is summed up in the last line of Scene II,"You speak for both of us? Nothing has changed".
Unfortuantely Eva is arrested off screen shortly after that and disappears for most of the rest of the play while there is a vote, an assasination attempt and a lot of talk about politics and philosophy.
I find it interesting that the critics made such a big deal about the visuals in the performance. In the script they appear only between change of scenes, and not every scene. I imagine they would be quite mood setting. The piece is much more dialogue heavy and character and politics driven than a little bit of scenery dressing. Perhaps the critics didn't want to get involved in the political discussions so focused on that. It is interesting to see that when a political play did manage to get past the censors it was still not discussed as a political play. It was as if the press was afraid to comment on that part of it. It's a shame there is no audience reaction that can be determined.
Eva returns only at the end of the trial,
Judge: I have two questions to ask you. Did the prisoner live with you?
Eva Berg: Yes.
Judge: Were his relations with you of a punishable character?
Eva Berg: What a childish question! Do you belong to the fifteenth century?
Judge: I wish to know if you had sexual relations with the prisoner.
Eva Berg: Will you fist tell me what unsexual union is? ...
p, 125
Karl Thomas: I love you, Eva
Eva Berg: Even at a moment like this, I mustn't lie to you.
P. 126
It was interesting, though the messages were a little muddled. It seems that everything was doomed to corruption and hopelessness, though always a reprieve at the end. It is disappointing that the women didn't have more to do and were absent for so much. But it was still an interesting read.
The action of the play takes passes in many countries eight years after the suppression of a rebellio, period 1927
Hoppla is really wonderful. It opens with 7 people in prison sentenced to death for their participation in the revolution. They share a ciggerette and contemplate death, and escape. It seems hopeless but at the last minute they are spared and set free. One man isn't freed and one man spends the next 7 years in a mental institution. The story starts properly when he is freed.
Beatrix's character is the young woman revolutionary Eva Berg. At 17 Eva was sentenced to death and was there with her boyfriend, Karl Thomas. When Karl finds her later she is 24 and working in a factory, she is brought before the executive because she has been addressing women's rights in the factories. She is unrepeantant in her desire to stand up for what she believes in. When her lover returns to stay with her she says she doesn't want him there. She refutes her claims that she is his, that sex has to mean anything but that there are far more significant things in the world. She returns having lots her job and agrees to go away with him as she can't do anything now, her frustration at being a woman in a relationship is summed up in the last line of Scene II,"You speak for both of us? Nothing has changed".
Unfortuantely Eva is arrested off screen shortly after that and disappears for most of the rest of the play while there is a vote, an assasination attempt and a lot of talk about politics and philosophy.
I find it interesting that the critics made such a big deal about the visuals in the performance. In the script they appear only between change of scenes, and not every scene. I imagine they would be quite mood setting. The piece is much more dialogue heavy and character and politics driven than a little bit of scenery dressing. Perhaps the critics didn't want to get involved in the political discussions so focused on that. It is interesting to see that when a political play did manage to get past the censors it was still not discussed as a political play. It was as if the press was afraid to comment on that part of it. It's a shame there is no audience reaction that can be determined.
Eva returns only at the end of the trial,
Judge: I have two questions to ask you. Did the prisoner live with you?
Eva Berg: Yes.
Judge: Were his relations with you of a punishable character?
Eva Berg: What a childish question! Do you belong to the fifteenth century?
Judge: I wish to know if you had sexual relations with the prisoner.
Eva Berg: Will you fist tell me what unsexual union is? ...
p, 125
Karl Thomas: I love you, Eva
Eva Berg: Even at a moment like this, I mustn't lie to you.
P. 126
It was interesting, though the messages were a little muddled. It seems that everything was doomed to corruption and hopelessness, though always a reprieve at the end. It is disappointing that the women didn't have more to do and were absent for so much. But it was still an interesting read.
July 7, 2018
Very good and quick read with some heavy themes that are still fit for our times. I highly recommend it.
February 15, 2016
A play about what becomes of revolutionary ideas once reality settles in. How ideals about turning over the power to the people are crushed when realising how little the average person knows about leading a business or administration. Basically what comedian Volker Pispers called "The transformation from being a sect to being a religion" (In connection with the Green Party's governing in Germany in 1998 after years of opposition). It is sad to read how the person with the least integrity and dedication to a course gets the furthest as he adapts back into the system that he once tried to turn over, denying his former ideals as childish.
What an irony is his way of dying; being shot for his former ideals instead of being shot for his giving them up, as a former friend and fellow revolutionary turns away in disgust and doesn't kill him. A very political and very good play.
Whoever likes Brecht should read this book.
What an irony is his way of dying; being shot for his former ideals instead of being shot for his giving them up, as a former friend and fellow revolutionary turns away in disgust and doesn't kill him. A very political and very good play.
Whoever likes Brecht should read this book.
October 13, 2007
An idealist grapples with a world falling on him with no hope for substantial change. Stage notes allow for a peek into a highly technical production.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews