Having [1] just
returned from abroad, one is very much of a mind to take off again immediately
when one sees in print how, in this dry rot-ridden country that perverts lies into
the general conversational tone, the facts are turned upside-down for the sake
of putting other people in the wrong. I
am referring to Sigrid Löffler’s highly biased story “Decampment into
Yesteryear?,” a story about the Burgtheater and Claus Peymann, a man I value
very much. Far be it from me to stoop to
addressing Mrs. Löffler’s prejudices; I shall instead content myself with rectifying
a certain sentence of hers that reads: “Not only is Claus Peymann the only
director of the Burgtheater who did not grow up in the area, but he is actually
a German who was specially brought in…” Either this sour-faced lady knows nothing of
the Burgtheater’s history, or, even worse, she is keeping that knowledge to
herself for the sake of being able to polemicize uninhibitedly. The greatest director of the Burgtheater of
the last century, Heinrich Laube, a native of Prussian Silesia and delegate to
the Frankfurt Assembly, was likewise “specially brought in,” as were the
Burgtheater directors Franz von Holbein from Hannover, August Wolff from
Manheim, Paul Schlendther from Berlin and, in the 1930s, Hermann Röbbelung from
Hamburg.
Thomas Bernhard
Ohlsdorf
THE END
[1] Editors' note. First published in profil, Vienna, Vol. 16; May 14, 1985.
Translation unauthorized but Copyright ©2014 by Douglas Robertson
Source: Der Wahrheit auf der Spur. Reden, Leserbriefe, Interviews, Feuilletons. Herausgegeben von Wolfram Bayer, Raimund Fellingerund und Martin Huber [Stalking the Truth. Speeches, Open Letters, Interviews, Newspaper Articles. Edited by Wolfram Bayer et al.](
No comments:
Post a Comment