Müller, Heiner (Eppendorf, Saxony, 1929-96, Berlin), after years in administration worked as a journalist and editor, and from 1958 to 1959 at the Maxim-Gorki-Theater in Berlin. His main achievement lies in the field of drama. He began with a series of plays demonstrating the socialist Brigadestück. Indebted to Brecht's Lehrstück, it aimed at stimulating constructive critical debate as the theatre's contribution to the DDR during its formative years. Der Lohndrücker (1957, in book form 1958), written in collaboration with his wife Inge (1923-66), was based on the achievement of the DDR's first workers' hero, the bricklayer Hans Garbe, the brigade worker Balke of the play, which is set in 1948-9 at the time of reconstruction. Balke's repair of a red-hot chimney on which the uninterrupted flow of production in a brick factory depends is sabotaged by fellow workers, who believe that Balke's determined effort damages their interests (of which the issue of wage claims is singled out in the play's title). Balke is subjected to humiliations, but resumes work with the worker who has beaten him up. The play's dialectics, however, raise wider issues of policy that remain open, including that of the motivation of Balke's heroism. The different treatment of the Garbe story (on which Brecht also collected material for a play in the early 1950s) and other sensitive aspects resulted in the play's suppression. Die Korrektur. Ein Bericht vom Aufbau des Kombinats ‘Schwarze Pumpe’, written as a radio play in collaboration with Inge Müller (1957, published 1958), had to undergo revision (second version 1959), and the comedy Die Umsiedlerin oder Das Leben auf dem Lande (1961), based on a story by Anna Seghers, was immediately suppressed and revised as Die Bauern (1964). Der Bau (1965, written 1963-4 for the Deutsches Theater) is based on the novel Spur der Steine (1964) by Erik Neutsch (b. 1931). First performed by the Berlin Volksbühne in 1980, it is concerned with the work of a brigade in the context of DDR industrial policy in the early 1960s. An unborn child, disowned by his father for the sake of his position in the party, emerges in the final episode headed ‘Schnee’ as the symbol of a true socialist state of the future.
Müller's political adaptations of Greek plays include Philoktet (1965, written 1958-64), Herakles 5 (1966), Ödipus Tyrann (1967, based on the translation of Sophocles' play by Hölderlin), and Prometheus (1968). Philoktet, Der Horatier (1973, written in 1968) and Mauser (1976, BRD and USA, first performed in Texas 1975, written in 1970) demonstrate Müller's radical rejection of Brecht's Lehrstück, notably Die Maßnahme, as being outmoded. The Horatian kills his enemy, thus securing Rome's victory, but he also kills his sister who mourns her betrothed in the victim. The people crown the Horatian as their victor and execute him as a murderer. Mauser adapts a theme from M. Sholokhov's novel And Quiet Flows the Don (German title: Der stille Don) and introduces a chorus and two figures designated A and B. A is about to be liquidated after having been relieved of his appointment as executioner, which involved the killing of his predecessor B for having felt compassion for a condemned peasant. The chorus and A, who protests against his impending death, debate its necessity. It is left open whether A dies convinced that he is an enemy of the revolution, but the play's quasi-Greek form implicitly queries the revolution's absolute judgement. Zement (1974), written for the Berliner Ensemble and based on a novel by F. Gladkov, was first performed on the 55th anniversary of the Russian Revolution which provides its setting and wide-ranging issues. Of these the depersonalization of the individual and the radical emancipation of women culminate in the episode entitled ‘Medeakommentar’; it brings to a climax the motif of the returning soldier (Heimkehrer) Gleb Tschumalow, whose emancipated wife Dascha Tschumalowa denies her husband and herself the right of possession in love and sex, the family unit having already disintegrated through the death of their pre-revolutionary child. As in Der Bau, the cement of the title symbolizes the construction of a new society by an intelligentsia that aims at the hardening of man. Drachenoper (1970, a libretto for the opera Lanzelot by P. Dessau) and Weiberkomödie (1971, based on Die Weiberbrigade, a radio play by Inge Müller) were followed by Macbeth (1972), Germania Tod in Berlin (1977, completed 1971), Die Schlacht. Szenen aus Deutschland (1975), and Leben Gundlings Friedrich von Preußen Lessings Schlaf Traum Schrei. Ein Greuelmärchen (1977). Müller's increasing withdrawal from readily accessible communication culminates in the manipulation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, a motif favoured by contemporary West German writers, always subjective, but rarely more abstruse than in the short scenario Hamletmaschine (1977) that marks the nadir of his pervasive pessemism. Later works include Der Auftrag. Erinnerung an eine Revolution (1981), based on Das Licht auf dem Galgen, a story by Seghers, Quartett (1981), based on the epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) by Choderlos de Laclos, Herzstück (1983), Verkommenes Ufer Medeamaterial Landschaft mit Argonauten (1983), exemplifying his montage technique, and the hermetic text Bildbeschreibung (1985), a scenario. In 1985 he was awarded the Büchner Prize to which he responded with a characteristically dense poetic text, Die Wunde Woyzeck, that reaffirms his uncompromising apocalyptic vision. The Nationalpreis Erster Klasse of the DDR followed in 1986. An edition of his works appeared 1974-89; other collections include Gesammelte Irrtümer. Interviews und Gespräche (1986) and Fünfzig Gedichte 1949-91 (1992). His autobiography, Krieg ohne Schlacht. Leben in zwei Diktaturen (1992), presented in the form of interviews, recalls his complex relationship with his father, a socialist, which began at the age of four with his father's ill-treatment and nocturnal arrest in 1933. The volume contains valuable comments and documents of direct relevance to his work.
Heiner Müller
| German Literature Companion: Heiner Müller |
| Wikipedia: Heiner Müller |
Heiner Müller (January 9, 1929 – December 30, 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. Described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett, Müller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdramatic theatre. [1]
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Biography
Müller was born in Eppendorf, Saxony. He joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) in 1947 and began serving for the German Writers' Association (Deutscher Schriftsteller-Verband, DSV) in 1954. Müller became one of the most important dramatists of the German Democratic Republic and won the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1959 and the Kleist Prize in 1990.
His relationship with the East German state began to deteriorate, however, with his drama Die Umsiedlerin (The Resettler Woman) which was censored in 1961 after only one performance. Müller was banned from the Writers' Association in the same year. The East German government remained wary of Müller in subsequent years, preventing the premiere of Der Bau (Construction Site) in 1965 and censoring his Mauser in the early 1970s. Yet despite these hardships, Müller’s work began to gain popularity both in West Germany and internationally at this time. Many of his best-known plays from this period were premiered in the West: this includes Germania Death in Berlin, which was first performed in 1978 at the Munich Kammerspiele. Heiner Müller himself directed a production of The Mission (Der Auftrag) in Bochum in 1982. In Paris, Jean Jourdheuil directed the world premiere of Hamletmachine (Die Hamletmaschine) in 1979. English translations, first by Helen Fehervary and Marc Silberman, then by Carl Weber, introduced Müller to the English speaking world in the mid- and late 1970s; Müller's controversial play Mauser was first performed in 1975 in Austin, Texas.[2]
Due to his growing worldwide fame, Müller was able to regain acceptance in East Germany. He was admitted to the Academy of the Arts (Akamedie der Künste) of the GDR in 1984 — only two years before he became a member of the Academy of the Arts of West Berlin. Despite earlier honors, Müller was not readmitted to the East German Writers' Association until 1988, shortly before the end of the GDR. After the fall of the Wall, Müller became president of the East German Academy of the Arts for a short time in 1990 before its inclusion in the West German Akademie. In 1992, he was invited to join the directorate of the Berliner Ensemble, Brecht's former company at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, as one of its five members along with Peter Zadek, Peter Palitzsch, Fritz Marquardt and Matthias Langhoff. In 1995, shortly before his death, Müller was appointed as the theatre’s sole artistic director.[3]
During the last five years of his life, Müller continued to live in Berlin and work all over Germany and Europe, mostly directing productions of his own works. He wrote few new dramatic texts in this time, though, like Brecht, he did produce much poetry in his final years. In the last half-decade of his life, Müller also worked towards transforming the interview into a literary genre. Müller died in Berlin of throat cancer in 1995, acknowledged as one of the greatest living German authors and the most important German language dramatists since Bertolt Brecht. Müller is buried at Berlin's famous Dorotheenstadt Cemetery, the final resting place of some of Germany's most important artists and philosophers: including Bertolt Brecht, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and Heinrich Mann.
Among his better known works, other than those already mentioned, are Der Lohndrücker (The Scab), Wolokolamsker Chaussee (Volokolamsk Highway) Parts I–V, Verkommenes Ufer Medeamaterial Landschaft mit Argonauten (Despoiled Shore Medea Material Landscape with Argonauts), Philoktet (Philoctetes), Zement (Cement), Bildbeschreibung (Description of a Picture aka Explosion of a memory) and Quartett.
Legacy
Over a decade after his death, Müller continues to have an enormous influence on European playwriting, dramaturgy, and performance. In 1998, the journal New German Critique devoted a special issue to his work. He is the only playwright to have ever received such an honor.[4] In 2009, one of Europe’s leading intellectual publishing houses, Suhrkamp, issued the final three volumes in a twelve-volume edition of Müller's collected works. The only twentieth century German dramatist who holds the same status is Bertolt Brecht.
Müller has also paved the way for a new generation of directors, playwrights, and dramaturgs who regard themselves as "samplers."[5] Müller adopted Brecht's notion of Kopien (German for "copying"), the practice of regarding texts by others as material to be used, imitated, and rewritten. In regards to Brecht's own oeuvre, Müller stated "To use Brecht without criticizing him is treason."[6] For Müller, the work of other writers and artists was not seen as private property; it was to be used as raw material for his own work. Thus, Müller's work in the theater marks the beginning of a tradition of densely poetic dramaturgy based in the logic of association, rather than linear "dramatic" narrative.
Jonathan Kalb, theater critic for The New York Times, describes Müller's legacy on theatre as replacing the "closed" didactical form of the Brechtian parable with "open" dramatic forms offering multiple meanings based, in Hans-Thies Lehmann's words, on a surreal "montage dramaturg . . . in which the reality-level of characters and events vacillates hazily between life and dream and the stage becomes a hotbed of spirits and quotes outside any homogeneous notion of space and time."[7] In reference to Müller, Tony Kushner declares, "Write into the void, learn to embrace isolation, in which we may commence undistractedly our dreadful but all-important dialogue with the dead. Forget about love and turn your face to history."[8] With Müller’s work, theater is a forum for examining history; it is "a dialogue with the dead."
Major works
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(Where two dates are offered below, the first gives the date of composition, the second gives the date of the first theatrical production.)[9]
| Title in German | Title in English | Dates | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zehn Tage, die die Welt erschütterten | Ten Days that Shook the World | (1957) | [co-authored with Hagen Müller-Stahl, after John Reed's book] |
| Der Lohndrücker | The Scab | (1958) | |
| Die Korrektur | The Correction | (1958) | [with Inge Müller] |
| Die Umsiedlerin | The Resettled Woman | (1961) | |
| Der Bau | The Construction Site | (1965 / 1980) | |
| Sophokles: Oedipus Tyrann | Sophocles: Oedipus the King | (1967) | [adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy] |
| Philoktet | Philoctetes | (1968) | [an adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy as a Lehrstuck] |
| Lanzelot | Lancelot | (1969) | [a libretto with Ginka Tsholakova for opera by Paul Dessau] |
| Prometheus | Prometheus | (1969) | [translation of tragedy ascribed to Aeschylus] |
| Macbeth | Macbeth | (1971) | [adaptation of Shakespeare's play] |
| Zement | Cement | (1972 / 1973) | |
| Der Horatier | The Horatian | (1968 / 1973) | [a Lehrstuck based on the same Roman legend that Brecht used for his The Horatians and the Curiatians] |
| Mauser | Mauser | (1970 / 1975) | [a Lehrstuck that 'answers' Brecht's The Decision] |
| Traktor | Tractor | (1974 / 1975) | [revision of text first written between 1955–1961] |
| Die Schlacht | The Battle: Scenes from Germany | (1974 / 1975) | [revision of text first written in early 1950s; an 'answer' to Brecht's Fear and Misery of the Third Reich] |
| Germania Tod in Berlin | Germania Death in Berlin | (1971 / 1978) | [utilizes 'synthetic fragment' structure] |
| Leben Gundlings Friedrich von Preußen Lessings Schlaf Traum Schrei | Gundling's Life Frederick of Prussia Lessing's Sleep Dream Scream: A Horror Story | (1976 / 1979) | |
| Die Hamletmaschine | Hamletmachine | (1977 / 1979) | |
| Der Auftrag | The Mission | (1979 / 1980) | |
| Quartett | Quartet | (1981 / 1982) | [based on Laclos's Dangerous Liaisons] |
| Verkommenes Ufer Medeamaterial Landschaft mit Argonauten | Despoiled Shore Medea Material Landscape with Argonauts | (1982 / 1983) | [utilizes 'synthetic fragment' structure in version of story of Medea] |
| [in English] | the CIVIL warS a tree is best measured when it is down | (1984) | [contribution to libretto of Robert Wilson's opera] |
| Bildbeschreibung | Explosion of a Memory / Description of a Picture | (1984 / 1985) | [dream narrative utilizing automatic writing in portions of composition] |
| Anatomie Titus Fall of Rome Ein Shakespearekommentar | Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome A Shakespeare Commentary | (1985) | [adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus] |
| [in English] | Description of a Picture or Explosion of a Memory | (1986) | [Prologue to Robert Wilson's Alcestis] |
| [in English] | Death Destruction & Detroit II | (1987) | [contribution to libretto of Robert Wilson's opera] |
| Wolokolamsker Chaussee | Volokolomsk Highway | (1984–1987 / 1988) | [cycle of plays also known as The Road of Tanks] |
| Hamlet/Maschine | Hamlet/Machine | (1989 / 1990) | [combination of translation of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Müller's own Hamletmachine] |
| Mommsens Block | Mommsen's Block | (1992 / 1994) | [a "poem / performance text"] |
| Germania 3 Gespenster am toten Mann | Germania 3 Ghosts at Dead Man | (1995 / 1996) | [produced posthumously] |
Stage productions directed by Heiner Müller
- The Mission (Der Auftrag), Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin/GDR, 1980–1983 [German premiere; directed with Ginka Tscholakowa] [10]
- The Mission (Der Auftrag), Schauspielhaus Bochum, 1982 [directed with Ginka Tscholakowa]
- Macbeth, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin/GDR, 1982–1985 [Müller’s translation and adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth; directed with Ginka Tscholakowa]
- The Scab (Der Lohndrücker), Deutsches Theater, Berlin/GDR, 1988–1991 [production also included Müller’s The Horatian (Der Horatier) and Volokolomsk Highway IV, Centaurs (Wolokolamsker Chaussee IV, Kentauren)]
- Hamlet/Machine (Hamlet/Maschine), Deutsches Theater, Berlin/GDR, 1990–1993 [Müller’s translation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet staged with the East German premiere of Müller’s own Hamletmachine]
- Mauser, Deutsches Theater, Berlin, 1991–1993 [production also included Müller’s Herakles 2 or the Hydra (Herakles 2 oder die Hydra), Quartet (Quartett), and Volokolomsk Highway V, The Foundling (Wolokolamsker Chaussee V, Der Findling)]
- Duell Traktor Fatzer, Berliner Ensemble, Berlin 1993–1996 [the production was composed of Müller's Volokolomsk Highway III, The Duel (Wolokolamsker Chaussee III, Das Duell), Mommsens Block, and Tractor (Traktor), as well as his working of Brecht's fragmentary Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer]
- Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Bayreuth Festspielhaus, Bayreuth 1993–1999 [conducted by Daniel Barenboim]
- Quartet (Quartett), Berliner Ensemble, Berlin, 1994–1997
- Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui), Berliner Ensemble, Berlin, 1995–present
Literature
Primary material
- Müller, Heiner. 1984. Hamletmachine and Other Texts for the Stage. Ed. and trans. Carl Weber. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications. ISBN 0933826451.
- Müller, Heiner. 1989a. Explosion of a Memory: Writings by Heiner Müller. Ed. and trans. Carl Weber. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications. ISBN 1555540414.
- Müller, Heiner. 1989b. The Battle: Plays, Prose, Poems by Heiner Müller. Ed. and trans. Carl Weber. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications. ISBN 155554049X.
- Müller, Heiner. 1990. Germania. Trans. Bernard Schütze and Caroline Schütze. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 0936756632.
- Müller, Heiner. 1995. Theatremachine. Ed. and trans. Marc von Henning. London and Boston: Faber. ISBN 0571175287.
- Müller, Heiner. 2001. A Heiner Müller Reader: Plays | Poetry | Prose. Ed. and trans. Carl Weber. PAJ Books Ser. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801865786.
Secondary material
- Banham, Martin. 1995. The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.
- Friedman, Dan, ed. 2003. Müller in America: American Productions of Works by Heiner Müller Vol.1. New York: Castillo. ISBN 0966247116.
- Kalb, Jonathan. 1998. The Theater of Heiner Müller. 2nd rev. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0879109653.
- Kushner, Tony. 2001. Foreword. In A Heiner Müller Reader: Plays | Poetry | Prose. by Heiner Müller. PAJ Books Ser. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801865786. p. xi–xvii.
- Weber, Carl. 2001. Chronology. In A Heiner Müller Reader: Plays | Poetry | Prose by Heiner Müller. PAJ Books Ser. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801865786. p. 239–244.
- Wright, Elizabeth. 1989. Postmodern Brecht: A Re-Presentation. Critics of the Twentieth Century Ser. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415023307.
References
- ^ "With Beckett's death Müller becomes the theatre's greatest living poet." Village Voice, quoted on the backcover of Müller's Theatremachine (1995). The phrase "enigmatic and fragmentary pieces" comes from the article on Müller in The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (Banham 1995, 765). Among others, Elizabeth Wright assesses Müller's contribution to a postmodern drama in Postmodern Brecht (1989).
- ^ The history of Müller's plays in production can be found in the Heiner Müller Handbuch, edited by Hans-Thies Lehmann.
- ^ Weber (2001, 243–244).
- ^ http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20090109-16655.html
- ^ http://www.goethe.de/kue/the/thm/idd/en4080155.htm
- ^ http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20090109-16655.html
- ^ Jonathan Kalb's The Theater of Heiner Müller, p.19
- ^ Tony Kushner’s forward to A Heiner Müller Reader"
- ^ Weber (2001).
- ^ Stephan, Suschke. Müller Macht Theater: Zehn Inszenierungen und ein Epilog. Theater der Zeit, 2003.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
 | Tristan Und Isolde (Bayreuth Festival Opera House) (1995 Music Film) |
| Einstürzende Neubauten: Liebeslieder (1993 Music Film) |
| La Jalousie (2000 Album by Heiner Goebbels) |
 | What is the Muller-lyre illusion? Read answer... |
| How much does micheal muller smell? Read answer... |
| When did filip muller die? Read answer... |
 | Were is the muller company? |
| How do you pronounce muller? |
| What is a cratae muller? |
Copyrights:
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 | German Literature Companion. The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Heiner Müller". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Tristan Und Isolde (Bayreuth Festival Opera House) (1995 Music Film)
- Einstürzende Neubauten: Liebeslieder (1993 Music Film)
- La Jalousie (2000 Album by Heiner Goebbels)
- Steffen Schleiermacher: Piano Pieces (Classical Album)
- Wolfgang Rihm: Lieder (Classical Album)
- Mão Morta (Rock Band, '90s, 2000s)
- Medeamaterial, opera (Classical Work)
- Die Hamletmaschine, music drama (Classical Work)
- La melancholia, "operatorio" for solo voices, choir, brass, orchestra & band (Classical Work)
- Frau / Stimme, for soprano & orchestra with second soprano (Classical Work)
- Volker Braun (person)
- Dimiter Gotscheff
- Josef Szeiler
- Carl Weber (theatre director)
