The Deputy
Encyclopedia
The Deputy, a Christian tragedy (German
: Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel), also known as The Representative, is a controversial 1963 play by Rolf Hochhuth
which indicts Pope Pius XII
for his failure to take action or speak out against The Holocaust
. It has been translated into more than twenty languages. The play has been dismissed by some as the product of KGB disinformation campaign
to discredit the anti-communist Pope.
An English translation by Richard and Clara Winston of the complete text was published as The Deputy: A Play, by Grove Press in 1964. A letter from Albert Schweitzer
to Hochhuth's German publisher serves as the foreword to the Grove edition.
. Within the same year, the play was produced at additional theatres in West Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland and France.
The play received its first English
production in London
by the Royal Shakespeare Company
at the Aldwych Theatre
in September 1963. It was directed by Clifford Williams with Alan Webb/Eric Porter
as Pius XII, Alec McCowen
as Father Fontana, and Ian Richardson
.
A condensed version prepared by American poet Jerome Rothenberg
opened on Broadway
on February 26, 1964 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre
with Emlyn Williams
as Pius XII and Jeremy Brett
as Father Fontana. The producer Herman Shumlin
had offered to release any actors who were troubled by the controversy surrounding the play. However, all of the actors remained with the production. The play ran for 316 performances. Herman Shumlin received the 1964 Tony Award
as the “Best Producer (Dramatic)” for his Broadway production of The Deputy.
Since author Rolf Hochhuth had originally prohibited a production of his play in Eastern Europe
an theatres out of apprehension that Eastern European governments could exploit the play for a striking anti-Catholic interpretation, the play was first produced in Eastern Europe almost three years after its premiere at the National Theatre in Belgrade
in Yugoslavia in January 1966 and at the National Theatre in Bratislava
in Czechoslovakia on February 12, 1966. The first production in East Germany took place on February 20, 1966 at Greifswald
Theatre.
The Deputy has been produced in more than 80 cities worldwide since. In the English-speaking world, the play has since been revived by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
in 1986 and at the Finborough Theatre
, London, in August 2006.
(prisoner Nr. 16670 in Auschwitz
) who sacrificed himself for the Catholic family man Franciszek Gajowniczek
. Prelate Bernhard Lichtenberg
, the dome provost of St. Hedwig in Berlin was imprisoned because he included Jews in his prayers and asked the Gestapo for sharing the fate of the Jews in the east. Lichtenberg died on the transport to Dachau. Kurt Gerstein
, an official at the "Institute of Hygiene" of the Waffen-SS, tried to inform the international public about the extermination camps. After the Second World War he produced the "Gerstein Report" that was used at the Nuremberg Trials
.
and the Papal Nuncio
of Berlin over whether Pope Pius XII
should have abrogated the Reichskonkordat
to protest the actions of the Nazis. Father Riccardo Fontana, the priest protagonist, and Gerstein meet for the first time.
A number of German aristocrats, industrialists, and government officials (including Adolf Eichmann) spend an evening in an underground bowling alley. Despite the commonplace setting the scene is rather macabre: conversations alternate between lighthearted pleasantries and equally dismissive discussions of the treatment of Jews. An icy Catholic industrialist—played by the same actor as Pius—defends his use of slave labor.
The final scene ends with Riccardo meeting Gerstein at his apartment; at the latter's urging, he agrees to trade clothes and documents with a Jew, Jacobson, Gerstein has been hiding in order to help him escape.
feared Pius more than any of his contemporaries and that Pius's commercial interests preclude him from condemning Hitler.
One of the Cardinals argues that the Nazis are the last bulwark that remains against Soviet domination of Europe.
and to follow the Jews to the death camps in the East, and possibly to share in their fate.
When angrily questioned by Riccardo, Pius pontificates on the geopolitical importance of a strong Germany vis-a-vis the Soviet threat. Ultimately, Riccardo shames the Pope into dictating a statement for public release; however, its wording is so vague that all are confident it will be ignored by the Germans.
The play ends with a quotation from German ambassador Weizsäcker
:
also discusses the play (and public reaction to it) in her 1964 essay "The Deputy: Guilt by Silence?".
Michael Phayer
notes that during the Second Vatican Council
of the Roman Catholic Church
a direct reference was made by Bishop Josef Stangl
to Hochhuth's play when he declared to the council: "If we speak in the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, as the deputies of the Lord, then our message must be [a clear] 'Yes, Yes! [or] 'No, no' - the truth, not tactics". His "moving address" made a significant contribution "to reversing the church's anti-semitism" - see Nostra Aetate
It has been said that it was Bishop Alois Hudal
who provided Rolf Hochhuth with the image of the "heartless, money-grasping pontiff". Hudal has been described as "the most notorious pro-Nazi bishop in the entire Catholic Church". He was appointed to a Pontifical commission where he assisted Nazi war criminals like Adolf Eichmann
, Josef Mengele
, Franz Stangl
, Eduard Roschmann, and many others to escape justice. After he became "a little too public" with these activities he was sidelined by Pope Pius and, according Hansjakob Stelhe, "took his revenge" by providing Hochhuth with his portrait of Pius.
In 2007 a high ranking intelligence officer and defector from the Eastern Bloc, Ion Mihai Pacepa
, stated that in February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev
authorized a covert plan (known as Seat 12
) to discredit the Vatican, with Pope Pius XII
as the prime target. As part of that plan Pacepa alleged that General Ivan Agayants
, chief of the KGB’s disinformation department, created the outline for what was to become the play. Pacepa's story has not been corroborated; the national paper Frankfurter Allgemeine
opined that Hochhuth who had been an unknown publisher's employee until 1963 "did not require any KGB assistance for his one-sided presentation of history".
and his production company “Rome Paris Films”. The Deputy was eventually made as the film Amen. by the Greek
-born French filmmaker Costa Gavras in 2002.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel), also known as The Representative, is a controversial 1963 play by Rolf Hochhuth
Rolf Hochhuth
Rolf Hochhuth is a German author and playwright. He is best known for his 1963 drama The Deputy and remains a controversial figure for his plays and other public comments, such as his insinuation of Pope Pius XII's sympathies for Hitler's extermination of the Jews in the 1963 play The Deputy and...
which indicts Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
for his failure to take action or speak out against The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. It has been translated into more than twenty languages. The play has been dismissed by some as the product of KGB disinformation campaign
Communist propaganda
Communist propaganda is propaganda aimed to advance the ideology of communism, communist worldview and interests of the communist movement.A Bolshevik theoretician, Nikolai Bukharin, in his The ABC of Communism wrote:...
to discredit the anti-communist Pope.
An English translation by Richard and Clara Winston of the complete text was published as The Deputy: A Play, by Grove Press in 1964. A letter from Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
to Hochhuth's German publisher serves as the foreword to the Grove edition.
Production history
The play was first performed at West Berlin's “Freie Volksbühne” (Free People's Theater) on February 20, 1963 under the direction of Erwin PiscatorErwin Piscator
Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator was a German theatre director and producer and, with Bertolt Brecht, the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content of drama, rather than its emotional manipulation of the audience or on the production's formal...
. Within the same year, the play was produced at additional theatres in West Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland and France.
The play received its first English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
production in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
by the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
at the Aldwych Theatre
Aldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:...
in September 1963. It was directed by Clifford Williams with Alan Webb/Eric Porter
Eric Porter
Eric Richard Porter was an English actor of stage, film and television.-Early life:Porter was born in Shepherd's Bush, London, to Richard John Porter and Phoebe Elizabeth Spall...
as Pius XII, Alec McCowen
Alec McCowen
Alexander Duncan "Alec" McCowen CBE is an English actor. He is known for his work in numerous film and stage productions. He was awarded the CBE in the 1985 New Year's Honours List.-Personal:...
as Father Fontana, and Ian Richardson
Ian Richardson
Ian William Richardson CBE was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor....
.
A condensed version prepared by American poet Jerome Rothenberg
Jerome Rothenberg
Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known American poet, translator and anthologist who is noted for his work in ethnopoetics and poetry performance.-Early life and work:...
opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
on February 26, 1964 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
The Brooks Atkinson Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 256 West 47th Street in Manhattan.Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, it was constructed as the Mansfield Theatre by the Chanin brothers in 1926. After 1933, the theatre fell into relative disuse until 1945, when Michael Myerberg...
with Emlyn Williams
Emlyn Williams
George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....
as Pius XII and Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett , born Peter Jeremy William Huggins, was an English actor, most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series.-Early life:...
as Father Fontana. The producer Herman Shumlin
Herman Shumlin
Herman Shumlin was a prolific Broadwaytheatrical director and theatrical producer beginning in 1927 with the play Celebrity and continuing through 1974 with a short run of As You Like It, notably with an all male cast...
had offered to release any actors who were troubled by the controversy surrounding the play. However, all of the actors remained with the production. The play ran for 316 performances. Herman Shumlin received the 1964 Tony Award
18th Tony Awards
The 18th Annual Tony Awards took place on April 28, 1964 in the New York Hilton in New York City. The ceremony was broadcast on local television station WWOR-TV in New York City...
as the “Best Producer (Dramatic)” for his Broadway production of The Deputy.
Since author Rolf Hochhuth had originally prohibited a production of his play in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an theatres out of apprehension that Eastern European governments could exploit the play for a striking anti-Catholic interpretation, the play was first produced in Eastern Europe almost three years after its premiere at the National Theatre in Belgrade
National Theatre in Belgrade
The National Theatre was founded in the latter half of the 19th century. It is located on Republic Square, in Belgrade, Serbia.The National Theatre was declared a Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1983, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia....
in Yugoslavia in January 1966 and at the National Theatre in Bratislava
Slovak National Theatre
The Slovak National Theatre denotes:* the oldest Slovak professional theatre consisting of 3 ensembles ,* a Neo-Renaissance theatre building in the Old Town of Bratislava, Slovakia, which formerly housed two of the theatre's ensembles , and* the theatre's large modern theatre building in...
in Czechoslovakia on February 12, 1966. The first production in East Germany took place on February 20, 1966 at Greifswald
Greifswald
Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...
Theatre.
The Deputy has been produced in more than 80 cities worldwide since. In the English-speaking world, the play has since been revived by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in 1986 and at the Finborough Theatre
Finborough Theatre
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty seat theatre in the Earls Court area of London, United Kingdom , which presents new British writing, UK and premieres of new plays, primarily from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Scotland and Ireland, music theatre, and rarely seen...
, London, in August 2006.
Historical models
Rolf Hochhuth has referred to several historical models for the figures of his play. Among these persons are Pater Maximilian KolbeMaximilian Kolbe
Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe OFM Conv was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II.He was canonized on 10 October 1982 by Pope John Paul II, and...
(prisoner Nr. 16670 in Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
) who sacrificed himself for the Catholic family man Franciszek Gajowniczek
Franciszek Gajowniczek
Franciszek Gajowniczek was a Polish army sergeant whose life was spared by the Nazis when Saint Maximilian Kolbe sacrificed his life for Gajowniczek's...
. Prelate Bernhard Lichtenberg
Bernhard Lichtenberg
Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg was a German Roman Catholic priest and theologian, awarded the title righteous among the Nations....
, the dome provost of St. Hedwig in Berlin was imprisoned because he included Jews in his prayers and asked the Gestapo for sharing the fate of the Jews in the east. Lichtenberg died on the transport to Dachau. Kurt Gerstein
Kurt Gerstein
Kurt Gerstein was a German SS officer and member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS. He witnessed mass murders in the Nazi extermination camps Belzec and Treblinka...
, an official at the "Institute of Hygiene" of the Waffen-SS, tried to inform the international public about the extermination camps. After the Second World War he produced the "Gerstein Report" that was used at the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
.
Act I
The play opens with a discussion between GersteinKurt Gerstein
Kurt Gerstein was a German SS officer and member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS. He witnessed mass murders in the Nazi extermination camps Belzec and Treblinka...
and the Papal Nuncio
Nuncio
Nuncio is an ecclesiastical diplomatic title, derived from the ancient Latin word, Nuntius, meaning "envoy." This article addresses this title as well as derived similar titles, all within the structure of the Roman Catholic Church...
of Berlin over whether Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
should have abrogated the Reichskonkordat
Reichskonkordat
The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...
to protest the actions of the Nazis. Father Riccardo Fontana, the priest protagonist, and Gerstein meet for the first time.
A number of German aristocrats, industrialists, and government officials (including Adolf Eichmann) spend an evening in an underground bowling alley. Despite the commonplace setting the scene is rather macabre: conversations alternate between lighthearted pleasantries and equally dismissive discussions of the treatment of Jews. An icy Catholic industrialist—played by the same actor as Pius—defends his use of slave labor.
The final scene ends with Riccardo meeting Gerstein at his apartment; at the latter's urging, he agrees to trade clothes and documents with a Jew, Jacobson, Gerstein has been hiding in order to help him escape.
Act II
Act II repeatedly attempts to drive home the point that HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
feared Pius more than any of his contemporaries and that Pius's commercial interests preclude him from condemning Hitler.
One of the Cardinals argues that the Nazis are the last bulwark that remains against Soviet domination of Europe.
Act III
As the Jews are rounded up for deportations "under the Pope's windows," Riccardo declares "doing nothing is as bad as taking part [...] God can forgive a hangman for such work, but not a priest, not the Pope!" and a German officer comments that the Pope has given "friendly audiences to thousands of members of the German army. Riccardo first voices his idea to follow the example of Bernhard LichtenbergBernhard Lichtenberg
Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg was a German Roman Catholic priest and theologian, awarded the title righteous among the Nations....
and to follow the Jews to the death camps in the East, and possibly to share in their fate.
Act IV
Pius, with a "cold, smiling face," "aristocratic coldness," and an "icy glint" in his eyes voices his concerns about the Vatican's financial assets and the Allied bombing of factories in Italy. Pius verbally reiterates his commitment to help the Jews but states that he must keep silent "'ad maioram mala vitanda" (to avoid greater evil).When angrily questioned by Riccardo, Pius pontificates on the geopolitical importance of a strong Germany vis-a-vis the Soviet threat. Ultimately, Riccardo shames the Pope into dictating a statement for public release; however, its wording is so vague that all are confident it will be ignored by the Germans.
Act V
Riccardo dons the yellow star and joins deportees to die at Auschwitz, where the rest of the act takes place. Gerstein appears at the camp in an unsanctioned attempt to rescue him. Unfortunately in the end they are found out, Riccardo shot, and Gerstein taken into custody.The play ends with a quotation from German ambassador Weizsäcker
Ernst von Weizsäcker
Ernst Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German diplomat and politician. He served as State Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1938 to 1943, and as German Ambassador to the Holy See from 1943 to 1945...
:
- "Since further action on the Jewish problem is probably not to be expected here in Rome, it may be assumed that this question, so troublesome to German-Vatican relations, has been disposed of."
Reception
The premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's “Christian tragedy” in West Berlin's “Theater am Kurfürstendamm” (temporary home of the “Freie Volksbühne Berlin”) on February 20, 1963 caused the largest and most heated theatre controversy in postwar Germany. The theatre production led to international diplomatic complications. Further productions of Hochhuth's play brought about conflicts and turmoil in several European cities. Hannah ArendtHannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
also discusses the play (and public reaction to it) in her 1964 essay "The Deputy: Guilt by Silence?".
Michael Phayer
Michael Phayer
Michael Phayer, born 1935, is a historian and professor emeritus at Marquette University in Milwaukee and has written on 19th and 20th century European history and the Holocaust....
notes that during the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
a direct reference was made by Bishop Josef Stangl
Josef Stangl
Josef Stangl was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Würzburg, Germany.Born in Kronach, Bavaria, Stangl became a priest on 16 March 1930, and he was appointed by Pope Pius XII as bishop of Würzburg on 27 June 1957....
to Hochhuth's play when he declared to the council: "If we speak in the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, as the deputies of the Lord, then our message must be [a clear] 'Yes, Yes! [or] 'No, no' - the truth, not tactics". His "moving address" made a significant contribution "to reversing the church's anti-semitism" - see Nostra Aetate
Nostra Aetate
Nostra Aetate is the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. Passed by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops, this declaration was promulgated on October 28, 1965, by Pope Paul VI.The first draft, entitled "Decretum de...
It has been said that it was Bishop Alois Hudal
Alois Hudal
Alois Hudal was a Rome-based bishop of Austrian descent. He was for thirty years head of the small Austrian-German congregation of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome and until 1937, an influential representative of the Austrian Church...
who provided Rolf Hochhuth with the image of the "heartless, money-grasping pontiff". Hudal has been described as "the most notorious pro-Nazi bishop in the entire Catholic Church". He was appointed to a Pontifical commission where he assisted Nazi war criminals like Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
, Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...
, Franz Stangl
Franz Stangl
Franz Paul Stangl was an Austrian-born SS commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust. He was arrested in Brazil in 1967, extradited and tried in West Germany for the mass murder of 900,000 people, and in 1970 was found guilty...
, Eduard Roschmann, and many others to escape justice. After he became "a little too public" with these activities he was sidelined by Pope Pius and, according Hansjakob Stelhe, "took his revenge" by providing Hochhuth with his portrait of Pius.
In 2007 a high ranking intelligence officer and defector from the Eastern Bloc, Ion Mihai Pacepa
Ion Mihai Pacepa
Ion Mihai Pacepa is the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the former Eastern Bloc. He is now a United States citizen, a writer, and a columnist....
, stated that in February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
authorized a covert plan (known as Seat 12
Seat 12
Seat 12 also known as Operation Seat 12 was an alleged disinformation campaign of communist propaganda during the Cold War to discredit the moral authority of the Vatican because of its outspoken anti-communism...
) to discredit the Vatican, with Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
as the prime target. As part of that plan Pacepa alleged that General Ivan Agayants
Ivan Agayants
Ivan Ivanovich Agayants was a leading Soviet NKVD/KGB intelligence officer of Armenian origin....
, chief of the KGB’s disinformation department, created the outline for what was to become the play. Pacepa's story has not been corroborated; the national paper Frankfurter Allgemeine
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
opined that Hochhuth who had been an unknown publisher's employee until 1963 "did not require any KGB assistance for his one-sided presentation of history".
Film adaptation
Rowohlt Verlag sold the worldwide rights for a film adaption for 300.000 Deutsche Mark in April 1963 to the French producer Georges de BeauregardGeorges de Beauregard
Georges de Beauregard was a French film producer who produced works from many of the French New Wave directors. In 1968, he was a member of the jury at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival....
and his production company “Rome Paris Films”. The Deputy was eventually made as the film Amen. by the Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
-born French filmmaker Costa Gavras in 2002.
Literature
- Hannah ArendtHannah ArendtHannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
: Responsibility and Judgment. New York: Schocken 2003. ISBN 0-8052-1162-4 (contains Arendt's 1964 essays The Deputy: Guilt by Silence? and Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship) - Emanuela Barasch-Rubinstein: The devil, the saints, and the church: reading Hochhuth's The Deputy. New York: Peter Lang 2004.
- Eric BentleyEric BentleyEric Bentley is a critic, playwright, singer, editor and translator. He became an American citizen in 1948, and currently lives in New York City...
: The storm over The Deputy. New York: Grove Press 1964. - Lucinda Jane Rennison: Rolf Hochhuth's interpretation of history, and its effect on the content, form and reception of his dramatic work. Durham: University of Durham 1991.
- Margaret E. Ward: Rolf Hochhuth. Boston: Twayne Publishers 1977.