Oldal 46 [46]
SASKIA FISCHER
THE PARTY LEADER: You must not be seen.
THE TWO AGITATORS: We will not be seen.
THE PARTY LEADER: If anyone is hurt, they must not be found.
THE TWO AGITATORS: He will not be found."
This dialogical structure, which markedly uses parallelisms and repetitions, is
similar to the form of the religious litany, which is a liturgical chant between
the preacher and congregation. The assembly responds to the preacher with
short formal phrases. The litany is generally characterized by a monotonous
rhythm, which is always slightly semantically varied (one might think of: “mea
culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa” in the Catholic Church). However, it
does not give up its unchanging syntactic form, just as, in Brecht’s case, the
answers of the agitators follow a syntactically constant pattern: “We will not
be seen” [Wir werden nicht gesehen], “He will not be found” [Er wird nicht
gefunden].*° The liturgical chant between the preacher and the assembly has
a community-forming function. The members of the congregation gathered
in the church communicate with each other through singing and speaking
together in response. Such “ritual gestures” bind the social group together."
Music, singing, and rhythmic speaking are important components of rituals,
for example during demonstrations. They “de-subjectify” speaking and make it
possible to experience a sense of community. In addition, they are realizations
of consent facilitated by the communal performance itself.” In this sense, the
ritual can be understood as a performative act which creates the social group
as acommunity in the joint performance of the ritual and in the shared sense
of being in agreement together. Brecht and Eisler attempted to realize this aim
through the way the play was staged.
The premiere in December 1930 was closely linked to the communication
system of the working-class movement.* In total, a non-professional orchestra
and 300 singers from workers’ choirs, who took over the part of the “control¬
ling choir” in the play, participated in the production. Although the characters
in Die Mafsnahme were played by prominent actors such as Helene Weigel
and Ernst Busch, it was planned that their roles were also to be taken over by
laymen in further performances. Both in terms of its content and its intend¬
ed effect, Die Mafsnahme was created as a pragmatic and functional artwork
44
Brecht: Ibid., 78. [Der Leiter des Parteihauses: “Ihr diirft nicht gesehen werden. / Die zwei
Agitatoren: Wir werden nicht gesehen.” / Der Leiter des Parteihauses: “Wenn einer verletzt
wird, darf er nicht gefunden werden.” / Die zwei Agitatoren: “Er wird nicht gefunden.”]
4 Tbid.
16 Braungart: Ritual und Literatur, 99.
47 Ibid.
18 Klaus-Dieter Krabiel: Die Lehrstücke, in Jan Knopf (ed.): Brecht Handbuch in fünf Bänden,
Vol. 1. Stuttgart, Weimar, Metzler, 2001, 28-39.
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