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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 “controlling 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 intended 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. s 44 »
