The Decision
Encyclopedia
The Decision also known as The Measures Taken, is a Lehrstück
by the twentieth-century German
dramatist Bertolt Brecht
. Written in collaboration with Slatan Dudow
and the composer Hanns Eisler
, it consists of eight sections in prose
and unrhymed, irregular verse
, with six major songs. A note to the text by all three collaborators describes it as an "attempt to use a didactic piece to make familiar an attitude of positive intervention."
. They meet a young militant, who offers to join them as their guide. They are forced to hide their identities because organizing the workers is illegal. The three comrades instruct the young comrade to abnegate himself and to take advantage of opportunities. He is told to hide that he is a communist. Their mission must remain a secret. Should they be discovered, the authorities will attack the organization, and the entire movement, not merely the lives of the four comrades, will be put in danger. Before entering China, they all put on masks in order to appear as Chinese. At the sight of the injustices and oppression, the young comrade is not able to contain his desires and acts immediately to correct the wrongs he see around him. As a result, he exposes himself by taking off his mask. When he does, he puts the entire mission and movement in danger. As a revolutionary uprising among the workers begins, the authorities pursue the young comrade. The comrades realize that they "can neither take him with us nor leave him"; if they help him to escape, they will be unable to help the uprising, and the needs of the many outweigh those of an individual; if he is left behind and caught, he will unwittingly betray the movement and then be shot. To save the movement, they conclude that their only solution is to shoot him. They ask him for his consent. The young comrade agrees to his fate in the interest of revolutionizing the world and in the interest of communism. He asks them to take him to the lime pit and to help him with his death. They shoot him and throw his body into the lime pit, so that the authorities can not identify him and put the uprising into danger. The play concludes with a chorus, to whom they have been telling their story, reassuring them that have made the correct decision.
"You've helped to disseminate / Marxism's teachings and the / ABC of Communism," (a reference to the popular book by Nikolai Bukharin
) they assure them, and the revolution there has begun. They also mark the sacrifice and cost that the wider success entailed:
in Berlin
, opening on the 10 December 1930
. A Brecht favorite, Ernst Busch
, played the young comrade. The play was also produced in Moscow around 1934.
Heiner Müller
, a postmodern
dramatist from the former East Germany
who ran Brecht's Berliner Ensemble
for a short time, reworked The Decision in his plays The Mission: Memory of a Revolution
(1979) and Mauser (1970).
and mass murder
while others have pointed out that it is a play about the tactics and techniques of clandestine agitation. They have also pointed out that it is thematically similar to his 1926 poem, "Verwisch die Spuren", ("Cover Your Tracks"), that his friend Walter Benjamin
saw as “an instruction for the illegal agent." Elisabeth Hauptmann
told controversial Brecht biographer John Fuegi that "she had written a substantial portion of it," but had forgotten to list herself as co-author. Ruth Fischer
, the sister of Hanns Eisler
, denounced Brecht, as "The minstrel of the G.P.U.". She also viewed the play as a foreshadowing of the Stalinist purges and was among its harshest critics.
In his journals, Brecht, however, relates how he had rejected explicitly that interpretation, referring the accusers to a closer scrutiny of the actual text; "[I] reject the interpretation that the subject is disciplinary murder by pointing out that it is a question of self-extinction", he writes, continuing: "I admit that the basis of my plays is marxist and state that plays, especially with an historical content, cannot be written intelligently in any other framework."
The committee tried to trick him by reading some of his more revolutionary plays and poems, but he was able to dismiss those questions by saying they were bad translations. Some of his answers were cleverly evasive, such as when he was asked about Comintern
agent Grigory Kheifetz. At one point, he stated that he had never joined the Communist party. Despite Brecht's extensive support for Communism, most authors agree that he really hadn't officially joined the party, nor did he ever do that in his life, although it has also been claimed in the literature that he had joined in 1930.
Brecht was asked specific questions about The Decision. He said it was an adaption of an old Japanese religious play. When asked if the play was about the murder of a Communist party
member by his comrades "because it was in the best interest of the Communist party", he said that that was "not quite" right, pointing out that the member's death is voluntary, so it is basically an assisted suicide rather than a murder. He compared that to the tradition of hara-kiri in the Japanese play.
The interrogators suggested that the title of the play (German Die Maßnahme) could be translated as "The Disciplinary Measure". During his testimony, Brecht objected to this title, and argued that a more correct translation of the title would have been "Steps to Be Taken".
The committee went lightly on him despite frequently interrupting his answers. At the end, Committee chairman J. Parnell Thomas
said, "Thank you very much. You are a good example ..." The next day, Brecht left for East Germany.
Brecht was embarrassed by Parnell's compliment but said the committee was not as bad as the Nazis. The committee let him smoke. The Nazis would never have let him do this. Brecht smoked a cigar during the hearings. He told Eric Bentley
that this let him "manufacture pauses" between their questions and his answers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYPqSiZs4MU
Lehrstücke
The Lehrstücke are a radical and experimental form of modernist theatre developed by Bertolt Brecht and his collaborators from the 1920s to the late 1930s. The Lehrstücke stem from Brecht's Epic Theatre techniques but as a core principle explore the possibilities of learning through acting,...
by the twentieth-century German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
dramatist Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. Written in collaboration with Slatan Dudow
Slatan Dudow
Slatan Theodor Dudow was a Bulgarian born film director and screenwriter who made a number of films in the Weimar Republic and East Germany....
and the composer Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
, it consists of eight sections in prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
and unrhymed, irregular verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
, with six major songs. A note to the text by all three collaborators describes it as an "attempt to use a didactic piece to make familiar an attitude of positive intervention."
Plot summary
The plot involves three comrades sent to organize the workers in ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. They meet a young militant, who offers to join them as their guide. They are forced to hide their identities because organizing the workers is illegal. The three comrades instruct the young comrade to abnegate himself and to take advantage of opportunities. He is told to hide that he is a communist. Their mission must remain a secret. Should they be discovered, the authorities will attack the organization, and the entire movement, not merely the lives of the four comrades, will be put in danger. Before entering China, they all put on masks in order to appear as Chinese. At the sight of the injustices and oppression, the young comrade is not able to contain his desires and acts immediately to correct the wrongs he see around him. As a result, he exposes himself by taking off his mask. When he does, he puts the entire mission and movement in danger. As a revolutionary uprising among the workers begins, the authorities pursue the young comrade. The comrades realize that they "can neither take him with us nor leave him"; if they help him to escape, they will be unable to help the uprising, and the needs of the many outweigh those of an individual; if he is left behind and caught, he will unwittingly betray the movement and then be shot. To save the movement, they conclude that their only solution is to shoot him. They ask him for his consent. The young comrade agrees to his fate in the interest of revolutionizing the world and in the interest of communism. He asks them to take him to the lime pit and to help him with his death. They shoot him and throw his body into the lime pit, so that the authorities can not identify him and put the uprising into danger. The play concludes with a chorus, to whom they have been telling their story, reassuring them that have made the correct decision.
"You've helped to disseminate / Marxism's teachings and the / ABC of Communism," (a reference to the popular book by Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
) they assure them, and the revolution there has begun. They also mark the sacrifice and cost that the wider success entailed:
Production history
The Decision received its first theatrical production at the Großes SchauspielhausGroßes Schauspielhaus
The Großes Schauspielhaus was a theatre in Berlin, Germany, often described as an example of expressionist architecture, designed by Hans Poelzig for theatre impresario Max Reinhardt . The structure was originally a market built by architect Friedrich Hitzig, and it retained its external, gabled...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, opening on the 10 December 1930
1930 in literature
The year 1930 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 6 - The first literary character licensing agreement is signed by A. A. Milne, granting Stephen Slesinger U.S...
. A Brecht favorite, Ernst Busch
Ernst Busch (actor)
Ernst Busch was a German singer and actor.Busch first rose to prominence as an interpreter of political songs, particularly those of Kurt Tucholsky, in the Berlin Kabarett scene of the 1920s...
, played the young comrade. The play was also produced in Moscow around 1934.
Heiner Müller
Heiner Müller
Heiner Müller was a 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...
, a postmodern
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
dramatist from the former East Germany
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
who ran Brecht's Berliner Ensemble
Berliner Ensemble
The Berliner Ensemble is a German theatre company established by playwright Bertolt Brecht and his wife, Helene Weigel in January 1949 in East Berlin...
for a short time, reworked The Decision in his plays The Mission: Memory of a Revolution
The Mission (play)
The Mission: Memory of a Revolution , also known as The Task, is a postmodern drama by the German playwright Heiner Müller. The play was written and first published in 1979...
(1979) and Mauser (1970).
Brecht and his Critics
Brecht wrote the play in 1930. Since then, some critics have seen the play as an apologia for totalitarianismTotalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
and mass murder
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
while others have pointed out that it is a play about the tactics and techniques of clandestine agitation. They have also pointed out that it is thematically similar to his 1926 poem, "Verwisch die Spuren", ("Cover Your Tracks"), that his friend Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
saw as “an instruction for the illegal agent." Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann was a German writer who worked with Bertolt Brecht....
told controversial Brecht biographer John Fuegi that "she had written a substantial portion of it," but had forgotten to list herself as co-author. Ruth Fischer
Ruth Fischer
Ruth Fischer was a German Communist, a co-founder of the Austrian Communist Party in 1918. According to secret information declassified in 2010, she was a key agent of the American intelligence service known as "The Pond."-Life and work:Born in Leipzig, Ruth Fischer was the daughter of the...
, the sister of Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
, denounced Brecht, as "The minstrel of the G.P.U.". She also viewed the play as a foreshadowing of the Stalinist purges and was among its harshest critics.
In his journals, Brecht, however, relates how he had rejected explicitly that interpretation, referring the accusers to a closer scrutiny of the actual text; "[I] reject the interpretation that the subject is disciplinary murder by pointing out that it is a question of self-extinction", he writes, continuing: "I admit that the basis of my plays is marxist and state that plays, especially with an historical content, cannot be written intelligently in any other framework."
Banning the Play
Brecht and his family banned the play from public performance, but, in fact, the Soviet government did not like the play and other governments banned it as well. Performances resumed in 1997 with Klaus Emmerich's historically rigorous staging at the Berliner Ensemble.The Decision and the F.B.I.
The F.B.I. translated the play in the 1940s, and titled it The Disciplinary Measure. The report described it as promoting "Communist World Revolution by violent means."The Decision and the House Committee on Un-American Activities
Brecht appeared before the Committee on October 30, 1947. Only three members of the Committee and Robert E. Stripling, the committee's chief investigator were present. Brecht wanted no attorney, and unlike the previous ten witnesses, was charming, friendly and seemingly cooperative.The committee tried to trick him by reading some of his more revolutionary plays and poems, but he was able to dismiss those questions by saying they were bad translations. Some of his answers were cleverly evasive, such as when he was asked about Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
agent Grigory Kheifetz. At one point, he stated that he had never joined the Communist party. Despite Brecht's extensive support for Communism, most authors agree that he really hadn't officially joined the party, nor did he ever do that in his life, although it has also been claimed in the literature that he had joined in 1930.
Brecht was asked specific questions about The Decision. He said it was an adaption of an old Japanese religious play. When asked if the play was about the murder of a Communist party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
member by his comrades "because it was in the best interest of the Communist party", he said that that was "not quite" right, pointing out that the member's death is voluntary, so it is basically an assisted suicide rather than a murder. He compared that to the tradition of hara-kiri in the Japanese play.
The interrogators suggested that the title of the play (German Die Maßnahme) could be translated as "The Disciplinary Measure". During his testimony, Brecht objected to this title, and argued that a more correct translation of the title would have been "Steps to Be Taken".
The committee went lightly on him despite frequently interrupting his answers. At the end, Committee chairman J. Parnell Thomas
J. Parnell Thomas
John Parnell Thomas was a stockbroker and politician. He was elected to seven terms as a U.S. Representative from New Jersey...
said, "Thank you very much. You are a good example ..." The next day, Brecht left for East Germany.
Brecht was embarrassed by Parnell's compliment but said the committee was not as bad as the Nazis. The committee let him smoke. The Nazis would never have let him do this. Brecht smoked a cigar during the hearings. He told Eric Bentley
Eric Bentley
Eric Bentley is a critic, playwright, singer, editor and translator. He became an American citizen in 1948, and currently lives in New York City...
that this let him "manufacture pauses" between their questions and his answers.
Examples of his Testimony About The Decision
The interrogators ask explicitly about the death of the young comrade:Works and Articles Cited
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYPqSiZs4MU