Abstract
ABSTRACTThis article examines Berta Lask's drama Thomas Münzer (1925), which was commissioned by the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) and staged in Eisleben to mark the 400th anniversary of the German Peasants’ War (1524–5) and the execution of Thomas Müntzer. Drawing on cultural memory theory and reading the play as a multi‐layered lieu de mémoire, it argues that Lask attempts to recuperate the revolutionary potential of the failed Peasants’ War and harness it to the agenda of the KPD of the 1920s. The article begins by situating Lask's play in a tradition of leftist writing about the Peasants’ War dating back to the mid‐nineteenth century. It then considers the ways in which Lask uses historical analogy to create connections between the sixteenth‐century uprising and events in post‐World War I German political history. Finally, the article explores the techniques used by Lask to create a sense of revolutionary community among her actors and audience.
Highlights
This article examines Berta Lask’s drama Thomas Munzer (1925), which was commissioned by the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) and staged in Eisleben to mark the 400th anniversary of the German Peasants’ War (1524–5) and the execution of Thomas Muntzer
Drawing on cultural memory theory and reading the play as a multi-layered lieu de memoire, it argues that Lask attempts to recuperate the revolutionary potential of the failed Peasants’ War and harness it to the agenda of the KPD of the 1920s
The article begins by situating Lask’s play in a tradition of leftist writing about the Peasants’ War dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. It considers the ways in which Lask uses historical analogy to create connections between the sixteenth-century uprising and events in post-World War I German political history
Summary
In her recent study on the dynamics of cultural memory, Astrid Erll suggests that ‘what is known about a [historical] event’ results not so much from ‘what one might cautiously call the “actual event”’, but rather from ‘a canon of existent medial constructions’, in other words, from ‘the narratives, images and myths circulating in a memory culture’.18 For Erll, the convergence of medial representations of an event that leads to the formation of a lieu de memoire arises from two key processes, which, drawing on concepts from media theory, she terms ‘premediation’ and ‘remediation’. He goes on to dismiss the federal structures of Germany that bring about this fragmentation; as Raina Zimmering notes, they hamper the country’s national development in comparison with its European neighbours, and its social and political progress.[25] Despite his repeated emphasis on the similarities between the two attempted uprisings, Engels concludes his essay on the Peasants’ War with. His work attempts to ‘raise morale’ and ‘inspire future action’ in the emancipation of the oppressed classes.[26]
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