Abstract
In this essay, Matjaž Birk discusses the German-language theatre in Marburg/Maribor during the Second World War during which both city and region became part of the German Reich. The occupying forces opened the theatre in 1941 among a discourse of strengthening the German character of Maribor. Birk looks at the history of the German-speaking minority and its relation to growing Slovenian nationalism visa - vis the theatre as a site of cultural and national identity. He uses the Marburger Zeitung newspaper as a specific reference point to analyse the discourses around the German theatre as the mediatisation of a financially well-endowed provincial stage which included reviews of performances and metanarratives on German drama, theatre and literature. It emphasised the “transcultural” character and importance of German drama and theatre for the development of European theatre and culture by manoeuvring between prominent references (Kindermann, Schlösser, Laube, Grillparzer, Goethe, etc.) and banned ones (American, Russian, Slovenian drama in German). The article shows how different strategies, inscribed into a codified theatrical discourse, masked the key aim of authorities, i.e. the (re)establishing of the identification with German culture, while at the same time revealing the perfidiousness of a regime which, while implementing a specific cultural practice, brutally pursued the Slovenian resistance and persecuted the local population.
This article was written in the context of the group of programmes “Intercultural Literary Studies (P6-0265)” sponsored by the Slovenian research agency ARRS.
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Notes
- 1.
From here on, quotations from the Marburger Zeitung are identified by the abbreviation MZ.
- 2.
The author is obliged to Prof. Dr. Anselm Heinrich for kindly providing access to the relevant archive documents.
- 3.
On the history of the German theatre landscape in the German-speaking territories of Central and Eastern Europe during the interwar period and under the Nazis, and the functionalisation of the theatre as a means of (re-)Germanising these territories, see Heinrich (2020).
- 4.
This play was performed at the Maribor theatre from April to June 1943 (see MZ 23 April 1943, 6).
- 5.
The drama The Lower Depths—the most famous of Maxim Gorky's plays—had been performed in Maribor back in January 1905, just two years after its German premiere at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin (see MZ 13 January 1905, 2).
- 6.
The linking of regional and national consciousness in theatrical discourse is also discussed in the review of the popular play Trieschübel by the Graz-based writer Franz Nabel (see MZ 12 December 1941), and that of the children's play Der Goldschatz im Bachern by Otto Welte (see MZ 23 December 1941).
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Archival Material
German Federal Archives/Bundesarchiv [BArch] Berlin-Lichterfelde:
Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda R55/20406, R55/21761, R 56 III/217.
Reich Finance Ministry R55/864.
Newspaper Articles
Annelinus: Bühne auf Vorposten. Marburger Zeitung. 17.8.1943: 6.
Gerschack, Anton. Der Steirische Hammerherr. Marburger Zeitung. 14.12.1942: 4.
Golob, Friedrich. Der Erbförster. Trauerspiel in fünf Aufzügen von Otto Ludwig. Marburger Zeitung. 16.10.1941: 5.
Golob, Friedrich. Das hässliche Entlein. Marburger Zeitung. 16.3.1942: 5.
h.a. Das Stadttheater Marburg Mittler deutscher Kultur. Marburger Zeitung. 1.6.1942: 4.
Krauth, Hermann. Der Graf von Luxemburg. Marburger Zeitung. 5.6.1941: 5.
Lenz, Werner. Grillparzer, der Klassiker der Ostmark. Marburger Zeitung. 21.1.1942: 4.
Matzak, Kurt Hildebrand. “Freischütz” in Marburg. Marburger Zeitung. 15.5.1941: 5.
N.N. Vom Theater. Marburger Zeitung. 13.1.1905: 2.
N.N. Der Führer in Marburg. Marburger Zeitung. 26/27.4.1941: 1–2.
N.N. Deutsches Theater in Paris. Marburger Zeitung. 7.10.1941: 4.
N.N. Vorhang auf – in den Städten und Dörfern der Untersteiermark. Marburger Zeitung. 8.6.1942: 4.
N.N. Das Marburger Stadttheater im ersten Spieljahr. Marburger Zeitung. 18/19.7.1942: 4.
N.N.: Das deutsche Theater in Agram. Marburger Zeitung. 23.9.1942: 4.
N.N. Untersteirer! Marburger Zeitung. 17/18.10.1942: 6.
N.N. Die Aufgaben des Theaters im Kriege. Marburger Zeitung. 16.12.1942: 4.
N.N. Stadttheater Marburg-Drau. Marburger Zeitung. 23.4.1943: 5.
N.N. Das Theater als Waffe zum Sieg. Marburger Zeitung. 3.11.1943: 6.
N.N. Bindeglied des neuen Europas. Marburger Zeitung. 2.2.1944: 6.
N.N. Der Dichter des “Eingebildeten Kranken”. Marburger Zeitung. 27.4.1944: 6.
Schultz: Bergmänner spielen Theater. Marburger Zeitung. 27.5.1943: 4.
Vesteneck, Marianne von: Stadttheater Marburg. Marburger Zeitung. 16.6.1941: 5.
Zimmer, F. A. Eine Französin als Freundin der Deutschen. Marburger Zeitung. 13.7.1942: 4.
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Birk, M. (2024). Masked Messaging: German theatre in Maribor under the Nazis as reflected in the Marburger Zeitung. In: Heinrich, A., Simke, AC. (eds) Dramaturgies of War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39318-1_7
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