Heiner Müller | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1929-01-09)9 January 1929 |
| Died | 30 December 1995(1995-12-30) (aged 66) Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation | Dramatist Theatre director Dramaturg Poet Essayist Short story writer |
| Genre | Postdramatic theatre Non-Aristotelian drama Dialectical theatre Poetry Short stories Interviews |
| Literary movement | Postmodern Postdramatic theatre |
| Notable works | Hamletmachine The Mission Quartet |
| Spouse | Rosemarie Fritzsche (1951–1953, 1953–1954) Inge Müller (1954–1966) Ginka Tscholakowa (1967–1986) Brigitte Maria Mayer [de] (1992–1995) |
Heiner Müller (German:[haɪnɐˈmʏlɐ]; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerlyEast German)dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution topostmodern drama andpostdramatic theatre.[1]
Müller was born inEppendorf, Saxony. He joined theSocial Democratic Party of Germany in 1946 which was in the course of the forcedmerger of the KPD and SPD subsumed into theSocialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED). He was soon expelled for lacking enthusiasm and failing to pay dues. In 1954 he became member of the German Writers' Association (Deutscher Schriftstellerverband). Müller became one of the most important dramatists of theGerman Democratic Republic and won theHeinrich Mann Prize in 1959 and theKleist Prize in 1990.
His relationship with the East German state began to deteriorate, however, with his dramaDie Umsiedlerin [de] (The Resettler Woman) which was censored in 1961 after only one performance. Müller was expelled from the Writers' Association in the same year. The East German government remained wary of Müller in subsequent years, preventing the premiere ofDer Bau (Construction Site) in 1965 and censoring hisMauser [de] 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 includesGermania Death in Berlin, which was first performed in 1978 at theMunich Kammerspiele. Heiner Müller himself directed a production ofThe Mission (Der Auftrag) inBochum in 1982. In Paris,Jean Jourdheuil [fr] directed the world premiere ofDie Hamletmaschine (The Hamletmachine) in 1979. English translations, first by Helen Fehervary and Marc Silberman, then byCarl Weber, introduced Müller to the English speaking world in the mid- and late 1970s; Müller's controversial playMauser was first performed in 1975 inAustin, Texas.[2]
On 17 November 1976, Müller signed together with eleven other writers and artists the petition against the expatriation ofWolf Biermann. Like several others of the signatories, Müller withdrew his signature on 25 November,[3] according to Biermann on the condition that theStasi would keep it secret.[4]
Due to his growing worldwide fame, Müller was able to regain acceptance in East Germany. He was admitted to the DDRAcademy of Arts, Berlin in 1984 – only two years before he became a member of parallel West Berlin academy. 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 final president of the DDR Academy of the Arts from 1990 until its 1993 merger with the western academy.
In 1993 it was alleged that Müller worked from 1979 to 1990 asunofficial collaborator (aninformant) under the code name "Heiner" for the East-GermanStasi.[5] Müller, who at the time was not a member of theEast German Communist Party or the East GermanDeutscher Schriftstellerverband, admitted that he had contact with Stasi officials, but never provided any material.[5][6][7]
In 1992, he was invited to join the directorate of theBerliner Ensemble,Brecht's former company at theTheater am Schiffbauerdamm, as one of its five members along withPeter Zadek,Peter Palitzsch,Fritz Marquardt [de] andMatthias Langhoff [de]. In 1995, shortly before his death, Müller was appointed as the theatre's sole artistic director.[8]
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.
Among his better known works, other than those already mentioned, areDer 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 akaExplosion of a memory) andQuartett.
In 1994, he was awarded the IVEurope Theatre Prize.[9]
Müller died ofthroat cancer at the age of 66 in a hospital in Berlin on December 30, 1995.[10] He is buried at Berlin'sDorotheenstadt Cemetery. Müller's grave was designed by his last stage designerMark Lammert.
Over a decade after his death, Müller continues to have an enormous influence on European playwriting, dramaturgy, and performance. In 1998, the journalNew German Critique devoted a special issue to his work. He is the only playwright to have ever received such an honor.[11] 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.
Müller has also paved the way for a new generation of directors, playwrights, anddramaturgs who regard themselves as "samplers".[12] Müller adopted Brecht's notion ofKopien (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."[11] 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 forThe New York Times, describes Müller's legacy on theatre as replacing the "closed" didactical form of the Brechtianparable with "open" dramatic forms offering multiple meanings based, in Hans-Thies Lehmann's words, on asurreal "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."[13] In reference to Müller,Tony Kushner declared, "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."[14] With Müller's work, theater is a forum for examining history; it is "a dialogue with the dead".
Heiner Müller's texts have been set by composers on various occasions. One composer with a particularly strong relationship to his output isHeiner Goebbels, who has collaborated with him directly.[15][16] Goebbels' Müller settings include theradio playsDespoiled Shore (Verkommenes Ufer, 1984),[17]The Liberation of Prometheus (Die Befreiung des Prometheus, 1985),Volokolamsk Highway (Wolokolamsker Chausse, 1989/90)[18] andThe Man in the Elevator (Der Mann im Fahrstuhl, 1988).[19]
In terms of plays turned intooperas,Wolfgang Rihm created his version ofDie Hamletmaschine in 1987,[20]Pascal Dusapin composed aMedeamaterial (fr) in 1992,[21] andLuca Francesconi's adaptation ofQuartett (de) was premiered in 2011.[22]
The Germanexperimental music groupEinstürzende Neubauten released its musical radio play adaptation ofDie Hamletmaschine in 1991.[23] TheSlovenianindustrial music groupLaibach also collaborated with Müller in his lifetime, and released an album based on in his texts under the nameWir sind das Volk in 2022.[24][25]
(Where two dates are offered below, the first gives the date of composition, the second gives the date of the first theatrical production.)[27]
| Title in German | Title in English | Dates | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zehn Tage, die die Welt erschütterten | Ten Days that Shook the World | (1957) | Co-authored withHagen Mueller-Stahl [de], afterJohn Reed'sbook of that name |
| Der Lohndrücker | The Scab | (1958) | withInge Müller |
| Die Korrektur | The Correction | (1958) | with Inge Müller |
| Die Umsiedlerin [de] | The Resettled Woman | (1961) | a comedy that got Müller expelled from the Writer's Association |
| Der Bau | The Construction Site | (1965/1980) | |
| Sophokles: Oedipus Tyrann | Sophocles: Oedipus the King | (1967) | adaptation ofSophocles'Oedipus Rex |
| Philoktet | Philoctetes | (1968) | Lehrstuck adaptation of Sophocles'tragedy by the same name |
| Der Horatier | The Horatian | (1968/1973) | Lehrstuck based on the same Roman legend that Brecht used for hisThe Horatians and the Curiatians |
| Lanzelot | Lancelot | (1969) | Libretto withGinka Tsholakova for opera byPaul Dessau |
| Prometheus | Prometheus | (1969) | translation oftragedy ascribed toAeschylus |
| Mauser [de] | Mauser | (1970/1975) | Lehrstuck that 'answers'Brecht'sThe Decision |
| Macbeth | Macbeth | (1971) | adaptation ofShakespeare'splay |
| Germania Tod in Berlin | Germania Death in Berlin | (1971/1978) | first utilization of 'synthetic fragment' |
| Zement [de] | Cement | (1972/1973) | adaptation ofFeodor Gladkov's 1925 novel |
| Traktor | Tractor | (1974/1975) | revision of text first written between 1955 and 1961 |
| The Battle [de] | The Battle: Scenes from Germany | (1974/1975) | revision of text first written in early 1950s; an 'answer' toBrecht'sFear and Misery of the Third Reich |
| 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 | The Hamletmachine | (1977/1979) | |
| Der Auftrag | The Mission | (1979/1980) | |
| Quartett | Quartet | (1981/1982) | based onLaclos'sDangerous Liaisons |
| Verkommenes Ufer Medeamaterial Landschaft mit Argonauten | Despoiled Shore Medea Material Landscape with Argonauts | (1982/1983) | utilizes 'synthetic fragment' structure in version of story ofMedea |
| [in English] | the CIVIL warS a tree is best measured when it is down | (1984) | contribution to the Cologne section ofRobert Wilson's opera |
| Bildbeschreibung | Explosion of a Memory / Description of a Picture | (1984/1985) | dream narrative utilizingautomatic writing in portions of composition |
| Anatomie Titus Fall of Rome Ein Shakespearekommentar | Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome A Shakespeare Commentary | (1985) | adaptation of Shakespeare'sTitus Andronicus |
| [in English] | Description of a Picture or Explosion of a Memory | (1986) | Prologue to Robert Wilson's version ofAlcestis |
| [in English] | Death Destruction & Detroit II | (1987) | contribution tolibretto of Robert Wilson's opera |
| Wolokolamsker Chaussee | Volokolomsk Highway | (1984–1987 / 1988) | cycle of plays also known asThe Road of Tanks |
| Hamlet/Maschine | Hamlet/Machine | (1989 / 1990) | combination of translation of Shakespeare'sHamlet and Müller's ownDie Hamletmaschine |
| Mommsen's Block [de] | 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 |
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