ABSTRACT
In 1998, the Gorki Theatre in Berlin announced a production of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s controversial play Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod (Garbage, the [C]ity and [D]eath). This news caused an outcry which was not confined to the German capital alone. Among others, Andreas Nachama, then chairman of the Jewish community in Berlin, maintained that the play had ‘Goebbelsque’ qualities (Lau 1998). The dispute reproduced – albeit on a smaller scale – former controversies over Fassbinder’s play. Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod shows the miseries and the hopelessness of life in modern Western societies where the individual suffers from alienation and human relationships are modelled on the logic of capitalist exchange. The debates revolved around the character of A., ‘The Rich Jew’, a real estate investor, who figures as the cynical and ruthless representative of the inhumane system – when Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod was first published by Suhrkamp in 1976, it was immediately criticized as anti-Semitic. In the same year, Schatten der Engel (Shadow of Angels), the film adaptation of Fassbinder’s play directed by Daniel Schmid, was the official German contribution at the Cannes film festival. When the festival refused to comply with the demand of the Israeli delegation to withdraw the film, the Israelis left under protest. In 1985 the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt planned a production of Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod and, again, a heated controversy arose. Whereas the Jewish community as well as other organizations (including both the conservative and liberal democratic parties of Germany) protested against the production, the play was defended by leftists, who insisted on the freedom of art. On the night of the premiere, the theatre was occupied. A fervent discussion followed until the audience was finally sent home. After an official letter of protest from the Knesset to the German government, a number of (unsuccessful) lawsuits against the theatre, and a petition of renowned theatre directors and managers from all over Germany in support of the play, the theatre eventually announced that the production would be postponed until further notice.1 By the end of the 1980s, the debate had slowly died down, but it was kindled anew in 1998. More than a decade had passed and the setting of the dispute was now Berlin; yet, the arguments, both in favour and against, had remained the same. The Gorki Theatre finally yielded to the protests and cancelled the production. Interestingly enough, the play seems to have been rather unproblematic outside Germany. It has so far been staged in the USA, in several European countries and even in Israel (see Jessen 1999).
