“As of today, Austria is a dictatorship,” said Herbert Kickl in mid-November, commenting on the federal government’s plans for compulsory corona vaccination. The rhetorical maneuver of the FPÖ boss inflated the anger of ideological vaccination refusers and corona deniers. On the other hand, it again proved Kickl’s speculative forgetfulness of history and reality.
A dictatorship is characterized, among other things, by the conditions outlined by Klaus Mann (1906–1949) in his novel “Mephisto”. The volume, published in 1936 by the son of the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, Thomas Mann in Exile, gained worldwide attention thanks to Istvan Szabo’s Oscar-winning film adaptation (1981) and Klaus Maria Brandauer in the leading role. It is about Hendrik Höfgen, who is as vain as he is over-ambitious, a kind of turning neck of the theater, based on the real model of the actor Gustaf Gründgens (1899–1963) – Klaus Mann’s ex-brother-in-law, who was celebrated by the National Socialists. Stephan Suschke, Head of Acting at the Linz State Theater, stages this strong piece of contemporary and literary history. The premiere will take place on Saturday (December 18th) in the Schauspielhaus.
The opportune intendant
Höfgen came to terms with the rulers during the Nazi era and was promoted to artistic director at the Berlin State Theater. First he fled from his future swastika friends to Paris, fearing that he might be imprisoned because of his “cultural Bolshevik” past. Back in Berlin, he won Lotte Lindenthal, the aviator general’s wife, for himself – and his career was picking up speed. The general, on the other hand, uses Höfgen as a puppet, and the “Faust” role Mephisto is also tailor-made for the passionate theater berserk. However, the opportune Höfgen deciphered too late which pact he made with the devil.
“I have the privilege of growing up in a dictatorship,” says Suschke in an interview with the OÖN. To what extent is it a privilege? “It is good to have gotten to know this system in order to be able to relate it to the undoubtedly better reality of a democracy.”
Suschke, born in Weimar in 1958, grew up there as the oldest of three children of a single teacher. “When the GDR came to an end in 1989 for all kinds of good reasons, I not only greeted the beautiful, new capitalist world with joy. But after a good 30 years I know what an incredible gain in freedom this best social order of all means.” And to all those who demonstrate against corona measures including dictatorship allegations, Suschke says: “These people have no idea what dictatorship is. It is they who are now dividing society. In an actual dictatorship, people with such would be against Banners have at least been approached with water cannons. ” Suschke is also a mystery why the majority of the vaccinated leave the street to a minority of the unvaccinated who sometimes behave in a terrorist manner.
One of the most popular conspiracy theories, says Suschke, is that the narrowing caused by the corona measures would be a state desired by the government. “But capitalism lives – sometimes unfortunately – from growth. And for every government in the democratic world such a pandemic situation means the waste of resources. That means: No government can want this restriction of freedom. Nevertheless, it is necessary, even if it does pisses us all off. “
Using Höfgen and Gründgens as an example, Suschke explains the particular danger that actors face in totalitarian regimes: “Apart from the money they need to live, all actors are interested in applause. That is the elixir of life. And that makes them seductive. Gründgens Until 1933 he was mainly a decadent guy with a tendency to evil, but he wanted to play character roles. So he was striving for a position in which one was not occupied, but occupied. To this day, I doubt that Gründgens was a political person. “
Suschke’s decision at 14
That was also the problem of many intellectuals in the GDR. “Many thought they could use the state security system for themselves – with the aim of being able to do their work.” Suschke himself was 14 when he had to make up his mind: “I wanted to go to high school, at the same time young people were being trained there for the National People’s Army. So I agreed to become an officer. Then I went to this school and knew the first one Year: No, I don’t want that, I want to do theater. ” What followed was a board meeting, “and I was given a choice: either become an officer or leave school.” His mother had a “crying fit – which had something necessary for me, but I could no longer imagine military training.” Such emotional rocking movements between adjustment and resistance would have been repeated over and over again in the lives of so many GDR citizens. Suschke had to go to boarding school – with the stipulation that he was better educated. He did his Abitur anyway – and the question of how all these experiences ventilate his “Mephisto” will be answered on Saturday.
Source: Nachrichten
