“Great Theater” and “Soap Bubbles”: Broch the Dramatist

Summary

HERMANN BROCH'S PLAYS WERE first published by Paul Michael Lützeler in his Kommentierte Werkausgabe (KW7) and more recently in Italy. Readers and even scholars of German literature and those who have studied the great Viennese writer will, in my opinion, certainly be surprised by the tragedy Die Entsühnung (1932), the comedy Aus der Luft gegriffen oder die Geschäfte des Baron Laborde (1934) and the “Schwank mit Musik” Es bleibt alles beim Alten (1934). The reason for such a reaction is quite simply that nobody, apart from a few specialists in this particular field, had previously known that Broch, along with his so-called “major” works, Die Schlafwandler (1931–32), Die Unbekannte Größe (1933), Die Verzauberung (1935, published 1969), Der Tod des Vergil (1945), Die Schuldlosen (1950), short stories and literary, philosophical, political and sociological essays, had also elaborated his own original theory of drama and between 1932 and 1934 had carried out from this particular position a “minor” activity as a dramatist and critic of the society of his time.

From June to September 1932 Broch rented a house in Schachen, a small hamlet near Gößl on the Grundlsee in the Austrian Salzkammergut. It was a rather simple wooden hut without electricity and with quite inadequate heating. The owners were Franz and Therese Gaiswinkler, a married couple from the area. Gößl is a little, godforsaken mountain village, totally isolated from the rest of the world. However, it is not very far from Altaussee, which despite the all too frequent summer showers, is surrounded by a charming, alpine landscape.