Ernst Toller'sDie Maschinenstürmer: an Expressionist Historical Drama

Abstract

Critics have condemned Ernst Toller's Die Maschinenstürmer as derivative of Gerhart Hauptmann's Die Weber and as an inferior work because of its historical inaccuracy. They have also produced contradictory statements regarding its style. If we examine Die Maschinenstürmer in the context of the Expressionist historical drama, we see that the Expressionist historical drama is more concerned with contemporary problems than with strict historical accuracy and that, stylistically, it is more orthodox than other Expressionist dramas. In this light, the criticism of Die Maschinenstürmer for inaccuracy is invalid – Toller is not interested in producing an authentic nineteenth-century play, preferring instead the clash between the old and the new, between the short-sighted Luddites and the visionary, Expressionist “Neuer Mensch.” Stylistically, Die Maschinenstürmer is a typical Expressionist historical drama in its combination of realism and Expressionism.