[Draft for a radio talk ‘On German revolutionary dramaturgy, 1935’. Published by Gisela Bahr, as above. Among the Berlin theatres referred to, it is rare for Brecht to mention the Volksbühne, or formerly Socialist-managed ‘People’s Stage’. The State Theatre Intendant who put on Brecht’s Man equals Man in 1931, and was sacked for it, was Ernst Legal. The Brecht/Eisler ‘Lehrstück’ Die Massnahme is known in English as The Decision or The Measures Taken.
Another version of this text is given under the same title in GW 15, p. 234: this ends on a more optimistic note with praise of the Soviet theatre as ‘the most progressive in the world’, while the émigré agitprop director Maxim Vallentin is termed ‘outstanding’. It seems likely that the talk dates from Brecht’s 1935 visit to Moscow.]
Notes of Uncertain Authorship
(a) Inscriptions for the Black Straw Hats’ meeting-house
Can God knock out Jack Dempsey?
What does an unemployed office worker need to know about God?
Is God a bluff?
Does God accept the bootlegger’s mite too?
Is God also capable of waiting?
What is worth more than a million dollars?
What has God achieved so far?
God locks nobody out
Can Henry Ford make automobiles without God?
Can Bolshevism become a business?
Does Bolshevism have a future?
Is God’s word a best-seller?
Fear of God – the little man’s capital
Make guns for God!
Must I pay my taxes to God too?
[‘Tafeln bei den SS’, from Gisela Bahr, as above. From early material, typed by an unidentified hand and related to scene 7.]
(b) Bert Brecht Saint Joan of the Stockyards – Extracts for radio
‘To assuage the misery of the stockyards, the Black Straw Hats sally forth from their mission house. At their head Joan Dark.’
Speaker: Joan
‘Pierpont Mauler leaves the Livestock Exchange. Surrounded by meat kings, he is questioned by Joan. Pierpont Mauler feels the breath of another world.’
Speakers: Mauler, Detective, Joan, Slift
‘The walk to the stockyards. Sullivan Slift shows Joan Dark the baseness of the poor’.
Speakers: Slift, Foreman Smith, Young Worker, Joan, Mrs Luckerniddle, Gloomb, Waiter
‘Pierpont Mauler and his agent Sullivan Slift, having made their arrangements, gloat at the prospect of a black day for the Chicago Livestock Exchange.’
Speakers: Mauler, Slift
‘Pierpont Mauler instructs Joan Dark about the indispensability of capitalism and religion.’
Speaker: Mauler
‘Joan Dark, sitting in the stockyard district, unemployed among the unemployed, narrates a dream.’
Speaker: Joan
‘The meat king Pierpont Mauler hears the report of the course of the great war on the Exchange, in which his agent causes him to lose his entire fortune.’
Speaker: Graham
‘The chorus of butchers and stockbreeders answer the dying Joan’. (?text taken from scene 11)
Pierpont Mauler
Fritz Kortner
Joan Dark
Carola Neher
Mrs Luckerniddle
Helene Weigel
Foreman Smith
Ernst Busch
Speaker
Paul Bildt
Sullivan Slift and Graham
Peter Lorre
Young Worker and Gloomb
Friedrich Gnass
Detective and Waiter
Otto Kronberger
Director
Alfred Braun
[Quoted by Gisela Bahr, pp. 217–8, from the radio magazine Berliner Funkstunde, 11 April 1932. There is no surviving script for this adaptation. It appears to have been some 40 or 50 pages long. A recording is in the radio sound archives in Frankfurt.]
Editorial Notes
General structure
There are four principal scripts or versions prior to 1945: (a) a loosely assembled sequence of scenes and episodes, incomplete as to scenes 9 and 10; (b) the 11-scene duplicated stage script sent out by Felix Bloch Erben, the agents, in 1931; (c) the published text in Versuche no. 5 (Kiepenheuer, Berlin 1932), likewise with 11 scenes; (d) the 13-scene text in the Malik-Verlag Gesammelte Werke, Band 1 (London 1938). Of these (b) is published in Gisela Bahr’s critical volume in the Edition Suhrkamp, no. 427 (Frankfurt a/M, 1971), as are selections from (a); while (c) is the text used by the editor Manfred Nössig in volume 3 of the Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe (Berlin, Weimar and Frankfurt a/M, 1988) which also appends the different version of the last scene from (b). For the 8-scene radio version of 1932 see Brecht’s note above.
The 11 scenes of the stage script are divided into Acts as follows: Act 1 = sc. 1 to 3; Act 2 = sc. 4 and 5; Act 3 = sc. 6 to 8; Act 4 = sc. 9, including what later became 11 (a); Act 5 = sc. 10 and 11. These Acts are not marked in the published texts, though the Malik version of 1938 uses roman numerals for its scenes, and arabic for the subdivisions marked elsewhere by letters. In the Versuche version the last section of scene 9 of the script is added to the end of scene 10 following the ‘Welcome’ chorus of the Black Straw Hats. In the Malik version of 1938 this section is renumbered scene XI, a new short (prose) scene XII is added (where the workers bring lanterns to identify the dead), and the final canonisation scene then becomes XIII. In GW, whose text was edited by Elisabeth Hauptmann in the 1950s and generally follows Malik, XI and XII become two parts (a and b) of a single scene 11, and the last scene becomes 12. The 1988 ‘Berlin and Frankfurt’ edition, edited for Suhrkamp-Verlag by an East-West team, goes back to the eleven-scene structure of the previously abandoned Versuche text of 1932. See our comments below (pp. 427–432).
Neither the 1932 nor the 1938 published version includes a list of the characters’ names.
Incomplete material
The early incomplete sequence of scenes and episodes analysed by Gisela Bahr varies widely from the subsequent texts, frequently containing passages written by Hauptmann and/or Burri to which Brecht made handwritten amendments. Characters figure under other names: Joan for instance is sometimes Joan Farland, Mauler is amended from Cracker (the gang leader of Happy End, or perhaps a relative – at one point there is a Zachary Cracker), Slift seems to have started as Swift. Hannibal Jackson the Salvationist lieutenant is another legacy from Happy End; probably by oversight, he survived right into the final GW text. Gloomb is Gloomp (not that there is much to choose between two such dreadful names). Most of the dialogue appears to be in prose.
But the most startling feature of what appears to be an incomplete early version is the presence of a subsequently expunged major character – God, also called The Old Gentleman. Somewhat giving the lie to Brecht’s disclaimer of all blasphemous intention, He makes His appearance in the Salvationists’ citadel rather diffidently in a draft of scene 7, after Snyder has prepared his listeners for the divine entrance, saying:
SNYDER: We have managed to win for our humble mission house One who has helped in the most difficult situations, who has demonstrated His power to attract the public, who can fill the biggest hall, who is familiar to every child, yet at the same time referred to with respect by every business man in the city [. . . etc., down to ‘scrub down the front steps’, then a short exchange with his secretary Barbara, a character not found in later versions.]
Enter God: am I intruding?
SNYDER: And where have you been?
GOD: I stepped outdoors for a moment.
SNYDER: O, I know where you were.
GOD: Getting a breath of air.
SNYDER: Outdoors indeed. You’ve been down to the Livestock Exchange again. How often do I have to tell you not to stroll around, with all those workers out on the streets? Just wait till they catch you, get out your new tunic. I’ve invited all the richest men in Chicago here to ask what they propose to do for you. It’s no good my pre
tending our position is anything but critical since our benefactor Lennox went broke.
GOD: The same old story.
SNYDER: I wish you’d stop sounding so fed up. You’ve been grumbling ever since we opened this place. But times have changed.
GOD: Anyway let’s hope they’re respectable people.
SNYDER: Do you imagine we can pick and choose our benefactors? And you so insistent on humility.
The new tunic is brought in.
SNYDER: Sh. The staff mustn’t know about this. I was meaning to tell you.
They put the new tunic on him.
SNYDER: How do you like this plain tunic? It was all we were allowed to give you.
A BLACK STRAW HAT: The old gentleman’s going to look so handsome he’ll put all the rich meat-kings in the shade.
ANOTHER BLACK STRAW HAT: Only last night I had another happy experience. A poor widow came up and gave us her savings book, saying ‘this way God’ll look after me and my five kids.’
GOD: Bravo! So where’s the book?
SNYDER: You can take a breather now, my dear friends. Aside. The book ... so he can have a quiet bet on prices falling!
GOD: Well, I imagine it’ll be all right for me to be seen in public, and by the way, I hope I’ll be getting the second room you promised me today. I was originally led to expect a second Saint Peter’s, I hope you realise.
SNYDER: Indeed? What are you suggesting now? We’re doing our best, you know. Here’s me working myself to the bone, and the staff so poorly paid that the left-wing press has begun taking it up.
GOD: Yes, yes, I’m simply saying it’s all very worthy. But there has to be some progress. We can’t go on for ever in such modest surroundings.
SNYDER: Just you go into your room and wait there till I tell you the visitors have arrived. I’ll explain our situation to them beforehand so you don’t have to get directly involved in the business side.
GOD (leaving): Don’t keep me waiting too long. (He sits down behind a wall with the newspaper.)
SNYDER (to Jackson): Someone had better tell the old man that absolutely nothing’s being done for him anywhere else.
Following the appearance of the four meat-packers in the mission house (whence Joan will expel them) and Snyder’s request for $800, God asks one of the Black Straw Hats ‘How’re things going in there?’
BLACK STRAW HAT: Tough.
God shakes his head.
CRIDLE (downstage): Admit it, Slift, you fellows have the livestock.
SLIFT: True as I’m sitting here, Mauler and I haven’t bought one cent’s worth of livestock, as God’s my witness.
CRIDLE: 200 dollars? That’s a lot of money.
GOD (gets up and puts a new record on the gramophone. To a Black Straw Hat): Looks to me as if they’re going to be quite a while in there. My dear Eliza [Joan], read me something about the old days, you know the sort of thing I enjoy.
Joan then reads Him the account of the building of King Solomon’s Temple at Jerusalem. Gloomb and Mrs Luckerniddle do not appear, and Joan drives out the packers without making her long speech. Snyder tells them he will sack her, and does so, saying ‘pack your bag, Joan, you have made the old gentleman homeless’. His verse speech, turning her out into the rain and blizzard, follows. Then:
GOD: Am I intruding? Do I keep this tunic on? Are you going to introduce me?
SNYDER: Oh, you’re still waiting, are you? You heard what this Joan of yours has done?
GOD: Anything my Joan does is well done.
SNYDER:
I’ve chucked her out.
Yes, that’s the way, just as I say, and really it’s quite simple
The rich think it no joke
Once chase the money changers from the temple
The temple will go broke.
Enter the landlord.
[MULBERRY]: Have you got the money now?
SNYDER: God will be able to pay for the wretched – I repeat, wretched, Mister Mulberry – lodging which he has found on this earth. (Exit.)
MULBERRY: Yes, pay, quite right, that’s what it’s about. You picked the right word there, Snyder. If God pays, well and good, but if he doesn’t pay, not well and good at all. If God fails to pay his rent then he must move out. That’ll be Saturday night, Snyder, right? Exit.
GOD: Am I to move out then, Joan?
[Joan says she will go and see Mauler, as in our text.]
GOD:
Mauler, how will you get to see him?
He’s the biggest of the lot. I too
Would like to speak with him. I’ll come with you, Joan.
He takes his hat, turns to a Black Straw Hat, says
Elisa, tell the major I’m going out for a breather. I don’t care for these business practices here. They really shouldn’t be necessary.
[And this ends the scene.]
Two other short exchanges seem to be set in the mission house. In the first, God, under his earlier name of The Old Gentleman, points to an old man with a fiddle:
OLD GENTLEMAN: SO who is that?
MARTA: He’s the famous scientist who plays for the poor people here.
THE OLD GENTLEMAN (gives him a smile and, when he returns the smile, shows him a sign which says): LATEST DEVELOPMENTS OF SCIENCE ACKNOWLEDGED HERE.
THE FAMOUS SCIENTIST: That’s easily done.
THE OLD GENTLEMAN: What d’you mean?
THE FAMOUS SCIENTIST: For instance, we now know there are three distinct cosmic laws. One for the great bodies, one for the middling, and one for the small ones. That’s life, wouldn’t you say?
THE OLD GENTLEMAN: Incredible . . .
[Then a brief exchange with Joan.]:
JOAN: What was the business with Jesus, by the way?
THE OLD GENTLEMAN: Wait a moment. Yes, I remember him. A little tubby fellow. I’m greatly indebted to Saul, who drew my attention to him. But there was a nasty incident: if I’m right, Saul once called him a Christian, and at that he turned the other cheek. . .
Scene 8 in what seems to be the same incomplete version starts with Mauler’s short episode in the Livestock Exchange near the start of our scene 9. Following on this Joan appears outside the building, with The Old Gentleman. They are still looking for Mauler.
THE OLD GENTLEMAN: You must make every effort to speak to your Mr Mauler today, Joan. We’ve been tramping the streets for over a week while you tried to get hold of him.
Our Scene 8 then follows, though the location where Joan visits Mauler is his own office, not Slift’s. Mauler makes his speech about money with some changes, and the confrontation ends with Joan speaking the closing four lines now given to Mauler, and Mauler soliloquising.
MAULER:
Nothing can get in my way, money attracts money.
And even if they wait seven years for a job, I shall
Not let a single scrap of meat escape me, so that
This time I shall skin them for good
As is natural to me.
Joan then addresses God, who has been waiting on the lower part of what is evidently a two-level stage:
JOAN: You come with me. We are going down to the stockyards to see the workers; they’ve been standing there for the past ten days.
THE OLD GENTLEMAN: Really? Then why aren’t they working? Just taking it easy, I suppose?
JOAN: Don’t you know nowadays it’s the kings of finance and the lords of industry that rule the world? And do whatever they want with the workers?
THE OLD GENTLEMAN: Nobody tells me anything.
JOAN: The capitalists are exploiting the workers.
THE OLD GENTLEMAN: Are they really allowed to?
In a long speech thought to belong to scene 9, Joan harangues the workers. The Old Gentleman is sitting among them. It seems however that she has not yet been dismissed by Snyder, which suggests that it might belong earlier.
JOAN: We Black Straw Hats wish to tell you that help is on its way. God is in Chicago. God has appeared among you in the stockyards. God is with you,
God is in your midst, God who led the children of Israel through the Red Sea, in a pillar of cloud by day, in a pillar of fire by night, He will lead you too. What are meat kings to Him? He will drive them two by two if need be. He who overthrew the Tower of Babel in a single day when it became too big for Him, He will also deal with the Chicago Livestock Exchange. He who made the world in seven days and saw that it was good (A catcall.) will also create order in the city of Chicago. And He who was able to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey, He will also open the factory gates for you and lead you within them. And He who conjured manna out of the air for His people, He will feed you too when His hour comes, I’m referring to travelling kitchens and cheap foodstuffs. And you, the humblest of all as you sit there, a tiny group in the tempest, you will be the greatest in His Kingdom (Catcalls.) You have only to persevere and commit no foolishness, or the police will come, and that will be the finish. Just think what He has accomplished. For a start, He created the whole world as we know it, with all its accessories. With its mountains and lakes and the lovely sun and every kind of beauty. (Catcalls.) Then He led the people of Israel and indeed all the peoples so mildly and considerately yet so strictly through the ranks of their enemies that it was a real pleasure, and He smote those enemies with the pestilence till the welkin rang. And with no thought of His own advantage. And finally it isn’t always winter. Summer too sometimes arrives. He was always stronger than His opponents, and the great kings acknowledged Him – just think of King David. And He was always for the economically disadvantaged – that can be found in plenty of places in the Bible. It’s common knowledge. Of course one shouldn’t just sit and wait for Him, for roast pigeons to fly into one’s mouth. Now and again, for instance, one has to appeal to the public if things seem too difficult. Just try that.
Brecht Collected Plays: 3: Lindbergh's Flight; The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent; He Said Yes/He Said No; The Decision; The Mother; The Exception & the ... St Joan of the Stockyards (World Classics) Page 43
