Der Auswanderer

I did not regret watching the staged performance of "The Emigrant" at the Dilger winery just around the corner from my apartment last Saturday night. The evening before, the two actors from Hamburg, Oliver Hermann, and Markus Voigt, had played to a large crowd, the residents of Pfaffenhofen and their American guests from Jaspers.

The room at the Dilgerschen winery was quite well-filled. The two protagonists sang songs of emigrants and used letter quotes from the crossing and the new homeland as descriptive texts.

While listening, I was painfully reminded of Herbert Schiffels's project of emigrant songs. Due to the pandemic, it had to be postponed several times and finally aborted. Too sad.

In the Der Auswanderer, Hermann and Markus represented several characters with their hopes and fears during embarkation, at sea, and at their arrival in the promised land.  

The applause of the audience was highly deserved.

Scenic representations of historical events are in vogue. Heinz Siebold's play Rapallo also captivated other viewers and me.

When I heard that the two "emigrants" were working on a scenic portrayal of the 1848 events, my ears pricked up. I was beside myself when Oliver Hermann revealed to me over a glass of wine that he would be playing Struve in the play about the 1848 Revolution. I offered the two gentlemen to help themselves to quotes from my website.

Oliver send me more details of the planned Freiheit! 1848, a scenic presentation of the 175th anniversary of the revolution in 2023. The Axensprung theater writes on its homepage about the European dream in three important places:  

Berlin as the seat of the Prussian king and a center of reactionary power

The National Assembly in Frankfurt,  the place of the arduous struggle for democracy and, at the same time, a rapid invention of democratic structures

Baden as an essential focal point of revolutionary uprisings and, finally also, their tragic failure

It is now a must that Freiburg, the stronghold of the revolution of 1848/49, should definitely see the planned scenic representation around Hecker and Struve next year.

Let us not forget that the Struve trial took place at the Basler Hof. At the same place, the invading Prussians ran over the last democratic Baden government.

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