Frank Wedekind
Frank Wedekind was born on July 24, 1864 in Hanover, Germany, shortly after his parents returned from living in America. Wedekind's father was a doctor, and his mother was an actress before she became a full time mother to her six children; Frank was the second oldest. Wedekind's mother and father often quarreled as he grew up. In 1872, when Frank was eight years old, his family moved to Switzerland. Frank's mother loved theatre and opera, and "even as a schoolboy, Wedekind began to write poems, sketches, and songs, which he accompanied with his guitar. Even at a young age, Frank was "transforming elements of his own experience into theatre" (Boa 12). Wedekind recalls that he was an "insecure, poor student" (Ham 50). During his school years, two of Frank's friends committed suicide, as well as his younger brother. As Frank discovered his own beliefs through his schooling, he became an atheist.
In 1884, Frank enrolled in Lausanne University to study German philology and French literature, but he only stayed for a few months. Next, Wedekind moved to Munich, where he was supposed to be studying law at the request of his father, but instead he spent his evenings at the theatre or circus (his obsession) and began to write during the day. Frank wrote poems, prose, and sketches as well as plays. In 1888, Frank's father passed away and Frank stopped studying law; he dedicated himself fully to writing and began work on Spring Awakening, A Children's Tragedy in October 1890, completing it by Easter 1891. Frank paid to have the script published that fall. In 1906, the play was finally produced in Berlin by Max Reinhardt. However, the play was censored and some scenes were cut entirely. The production opened on November 20, 1906 and was performed 615 times over the next 20 years. While the cast did change, Wedekind played the Masked Man at the beginning. Just as with Spring Awakening, Frank continued to occupy multiple roles in the theatre throughout his career including actor, playwright, producer, and director.
During the years 1892 to 1895, Frank lived in Paris. His time spent in Paris is reflected in the 'Lulu' plays, Earth-Spirit and Pandora's Box. The two plays follow Lulu, a femme fatale who ultimately destroys the men who pursue her. In 1895, Simplicissimus, a liberal periodical, entered into publication, and much of Frank's writing was printed in it throughout the years. Some of his political poems were published in 1898 and shortly after, Wedekind received warning that he would soon be arrested. After hiding out in Zurich and Paris, Frank handed himself over to the German police and served six weeks in jail, followed by seven months' imprisonment in Königstein Castle. While there, Wedekind wrote a novel, Mine-Haha, or The Education of Young Girls. After Frank was released, he and his friends began a series of "literary cabarets" in Germany that imitated the cabarets Wedekind had experienced in Paris. These cabaret acts were "apparently sexually provocative and even obscene" (Wilson 420).
The first of the 'Lulu' plays, Earth-Spirit received various productions from 1898 onward, while Pandora's Box was not staged until 1905. Through that first production, Frank met his wife, Tilly Newes, who was playing Lulu. The couple married on May 1, 1906. Near the end of 1906, the Wedekinds welcomed their first daughter, and another followed in 1911. The girls "remember their father treating children with exceptional respect, as if there were no significant difference between children and adults" (Franzen ix). Frank and Tilly's marriage had many issues, but she remained by his side through it all. In 1914, Frank got appendicitis and after several operations in the next three and a half years, he passed away on March 9, 1918. Frank Wedekind spent his life rejecting "the cultural oppressiveness of German society, seeking a world given to sensuality instead of rationalism, nihilism rather than order; one that responded to the visceral drives of being alive, not the socially indoctrinated mores identified by the church, government, and bourgeois" (Zazzali 135). "Wedekind is of no school, he recognizes no established laws, he sets at defiance morality and accepted belief. [...] He is an inspired pessimist" (Continental 116).
In 1884, Frank enrolled in Lausanne University to study German philology and French literature, but he only stayed for a few months. Next, Wedekind moved to Munich, where he was supposed to be studying law at the request of his father, but instead he spent his evenings at the theatre or circus (his obsession) and began to write during the day. Frank wrote poems, prose, and sketches as well as plays. In 1888, Frank's father passed away and Frank stopped studying law; he dedicated himself fully to writing and began work on Spring Awakening, A Children's Tragedy in October 1890, completing it by Easter 1891. Frank paid to have the script published that fall. In 1906, the play was finally produced in Berlin by Max Reinhardt. However, the play was censored and some scenes were cut entirely. The production opened on November 20, 1906 and was performed 615 times over the next 20 years. While the cast did change, Wedekind played the Masked Man at the beginning. Just as with Spring Awakening, Frank continued to occupy multiple roles in the theatre throughout his career including actor, playwright, producer, and director.
During the years 1892 to 1895, Frank lived in Paris. His time spent in Paris is reflected in the 'Lulu' plays, Earth-Spirit and Pandora's Box. The two plays follow Lulu, a femme fatale who ultimately destroys the men who pursue her. In 1895, Simplicissimus, a liberal periodical, entered into publication, and much of Frank's writing was printed in it throughout the years. Some of his political poems were published in 1898 and shortly after, Wedekind received warning that he would soon be arrested. After hiding out in Zurich and Paris, Frank handed himself over to the German police and served six weeks in jail, followed by seven months' imprisonment in Königstein Castle. While there, Wedekind wrote a novel, Mine-Haha, or The Education of Young Girls. After Frank was released, he and his friends began a series of "literary cabarets" in Germany that imitated the cabarets Wedekind had experienced in Paris. These cabaret acts were "apparently sexually provocative and even obscene" (Wilson 420).
The first of the 'Lulu' plays, Earth-Spirit received various productions from 1898 onward, while Pandora's Box was not staged until 1905. Through that first production, Frank met his wife, Tilly Newes, who was playing Lulu. The couple married on May 1, 1906. Near the end of 1906, the Wedekinds welcomed their first daughter, and another followed in 1911. The girls "remember their father treating children with exceptional respect, as if there were no significant difference between children and adults" (Franzen ix). Frank and Tilly's marriage had many issues, but she remained by his side through it all. In 1914, Frank got appendicitis and after several operations in the next three and a half years, he passed away on March 9, 1918. Frank Wedekind spent his life rejecting "the cultural oppressiveness of German society, seeking a world given to sensuality instead of rationalism, nihilism rather than order; one that responded to the visceral drives of being alive, not the socially indoctrinated mores identified by the church, government, and bourgeois" (Zazzali 135). "Wedekind is of no school, he recognizes no established laws, he sets at defiance morality and accepted belief. [...] He is an inspired pessimist" (Continental 116).
"He was the terror of the German bourgeoisie, a moralist who wore the mask of an immoralist. He was loved or hated, admired or despised, praised for being an apostle or condemned for being the devil. His enemies called him a lunatic, a criminal who wrote dirty, unsavory plays. His admirers called him an idiot with a halo, God's fool. As an actor and director, he was a phenomenon, as a man he was a magician. All his life he was faithful to his convictions and he never compromised. Even the fiercest battles with the censors couldn't stop him." - Elisabeth Bond-Pablé
Spring Awakening, A Children's Tragedy
A Children's Tragedy
In true Aristotelian tragedy, it is the protagonist who possesses a tragic flaw that leads to his ultimate downfall, however some suggest that in Spring Awakening, "the position of tragic hero is occupied not by an individual but by an entire society which is destroying the children it claims to love" (Franzen xii).
Autobiography
"In every scene there is an element of autobiography. But there is at the same time a panorama of the growth of adolescence: the individual problems of puberty, of adapting to the adult world, of the sacrifice of the needs of childhood, of frustration and of moments of happiness in both sexes. Melchior and Moritz are the two sides of Wedekind's personality, shown trapped in the social cage he describes so brilliantly. Two of his school friends had killed themselves, and even the words 'That boy wasn't mine' were spoken by the father of one of them" (Wedekind xlii).
Censorship
Spring Awakening in its cultural and historical context was a "subversive work that challenged the hypocrisy, taboos, and conservatism of the German establishment" (Zazalli). Frank Wedekind finished writing Spring Awakening on Easter of 1891, but the material contained in the play was so scandalous that it was not produced onstage until 1906. "In imperial Germany, preliminary censorship - whereby a work had to be submitted to the police for approval prior to public presentation - existed only for the theatre" (Modern 167). The play had to censored in order to be performed, so several scenes were cut in their entirety. These scenes include: Act Two, Scene Three (Hanschen's masturbation), Act Three, Scene Four (the circle jerk), and Act Three, Scene Six (Ernst and Hanschen's kiss). Even with the censored scenes, Spring Awakening "broke through all the cliches of the theatre of [Wedekind's] time, both in what he said and in how he said it" (Wedekind xx). The play continued to be censored in various degrees throughout the twentieth-century. During the Nazi regime, most of Wedekind's work was banned. After 1945 several attempts were made to revive his plays, but none were met with great success.
The re-creation of Spring Awakening into a musical has allowed the play to be re-imagined in a way that honors the original material, while also adding a modern twist:
America's cultural conservatism is pervasive, and can be likened to the soulless milieu of late-nineteenth-century Germany. Therefore, one can assume that a rock musical rendition would be a creative, sensible, and illuminating way of catching the text's rebellious content" (Zazalli 137).
Even the creators of the musical began to censor themselves throughout the process of creating the production. The sex scene between Melchior and Wendla is consensual in the Broadway production, while the Off-Broadway production was a "confused ambiguity" between the two characters (Isherwood). In the Broadway production, Wendla places Melchior's hand on her breast. This action is one of the multiple factors that makes the sex appear consensual while the Off-Broadway production seems somewhat uncertain. Off-Broadway, the sex scene occurs at the end of Act 1, and the characters appear to get caught up in the heat of the moment. Melchior seems actively engaged while Wendla appears unsure and hesitant. On Broadway, the sex scene occurs across the end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2, at a slower pace and with both characters seeming actively engaged.
Expressionism
While Spring Awakening adheres to many of the tenets of realism, it also contains bits of expressionism and symbolism. While the expressionist movement did not truly begin until around 1910, Wedekind's works have similarities to expressionistic works. The expressionist writers "rebelled against the values of the Imperial Era and the alienating and depersonalizing effects of modern industrial civilization. Their revolt was one of youth against age, of sons against fathers" (Modern 289).
Sources:
Boa, Elizabeth. The Sexual Circus: Wedekind's Theatre of Subversion. New York: Basil Blackwell Inc, 1987. Print.
The Continental Drama of Today. Barrett H. Clark. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1914. pp. 115-6.
"Frank Wedekind." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2013. Web. 4 Sept. 2014.
Franzen, Jonathan. Introduction. Spring Awakening. Ed. Frank Wedekind. Trans. Jonathan Franzen. New York: Faber and Faber Inc., 2007. Print.
Ham, Jennifer. "Unlearning the Lesson: Wedekind, Nietzsche, and Educational Reform at the Turn of the Century." Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 40.1 (2007): 49-63. Print.
Isherwood, Charles. "Sex and Rock? What Would the Kaiser Think?" The New York Times: Theatre Reviews. 10 Dec. 2006. Web. 25 Jun 2014.
Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People, and Culture, 1871-1900. 1998. Print.
Wedekind, Frank. Spring Awakening. Trans. Edward Bond. London: Methuen Drama, 2009. Print.
Wilson, Edwin, and Alvin Goldfarb, eds. Living Theatre: A History. Fourth ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004. Print.
Zazzalli, Peter. "Reinventing Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening as a Rock Musical." Communications from the International Brecht Society 36 (2007): 135-42. Print.
In true Aristotelian tragedy, it is the protagonist who possesses a tragic flaw that leads to his ultimate downfall, however some suggest that in Spring Awakening, "the position of tragic hero is occupied not by an individual but by an entire society which is destroying the children it claims to love" (Franzen xii).
Autobiography
"In every scene there is an element of autobiography. But there is at the same time a panorama of the growth of adolescence: the individual problems of puberty, of adapting to the adult world, of the sacrifice of the needs of childhood, of frustration and of moments of happiness in both sexes. Melchior and Moritz are the two sides of Wedekind's personality, shown trapped in the social cage he describes so brilliantly. Two of his school friends had killed themselves, and even the words 'That boy wasn't mine' were spoken by the father of one of them" (Wedekind xlii).
Censorship
Spring Awakening in its cultural and historical context was a "subversive work that challenged the hypocrisy, taboos, and conservatism of the German establishment" (Zazalli). Frank Wedekind finished writing Spring Awakening on Easter of 1891, but the material contained in the play was so scandalous that it was not produced onstage until 1906. "In imperial Germany, preliminary censorship - whereby a work had to be submitted to the police for approval prior to public presentation - existed only for the theatre" (Modern 167). The play had to censored in order to be performed, so several scenes were cut in their entirety. These scenes include: Act Two, Scene Three (Hanschen's masturbation), Act Three, Scene Four (the circle jerk), and Act Three, Scene Six (Ernst and Hanschen's kiss). Even with the censored scenes, Spring Awakening "broke through all the cliches of the theatre of [Wedekind's] time, both in what he said and in how he said it" (Wedekind xx). The play continued to be censored in various degrees throughout the twentieth-century. During the Nazi regime, most of Wedekind's work was banned. After 1945 several attempts were made to revive his plays, but none were met with great success.
The re-creation of Spring Awakening into a musical has allowed the play to be re-imagined in a way that honors the original material, while also adding a modern twist:
America's cultural conservatism is pervasive, and can be likened to the soulless milieu of late-nineteenth-century Germany. Therefore, one can assume that a rock musical rendition would be a creative, sensible, and illuminating way of catching the text's rebellious content" (Zazalli 137).
Even the creators of the musical began to censor themselves throughout the process of creating the production. The sex scene between Melchior and Wendla is consensual in the Broadway production, while the Off-Broadway production was a "confused ambiguity" between the two characters (Isherwood). In the Broadway production, Wendla places Melchior's hand on her breast. This action is one of the multiple factors that makes the sex appear consensual while the Off-Broadway production seems somewhat uncertain. Off-Broadway, the sex scene occurs at the end of Act 1, and the characters appear to get caught up in the heat of the moment. Melchior seems actively engaged while Wendla appears unsure and hesitant. On Broadway, the sex scene occurs across the end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2, at a slower pace and with both characters seeming actively engaged.
Expressionism
While Spring Awakening adheres to many of the tenets of realism, it also contains bits of expressionism and symbolism. While the expressionist movement did not truly begin until around 1910, Wedekind's works have similarities to expressionistic works. The expressionist writers "rebelled against the values of the Imperial Era and the alienating and depersonalizing effects of modern industrial civilization. Their revolt was one of youth against age, of sons against fathers" (Modern 289).
Sources:
Boa, Elizabeth. The Sexual Circus: Wedekind's Theatre of Subversion. New York: Basil Blackwell Inc, 1987. Print.
The Continental Drama of Today. Barrett H. Clark. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1914. pp. 115-6.
"Frank Wedekind." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2013. Web. 4 Sept. 2014.
Franzen, Jonathan. Introduction. Spring Awakening. Ed. Frank Wedekind. Trans. Jonathan Franzen. New York: Faber and Faber Inc., 2007. Print.
Ham, Jennifer. "Unlearning the Lesson: Wedekind, Nietzsche, and Educational Reform at the Turn of the Century." Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 40.1 (2007): 49-63. Print.
Isherwood, Charles. "Sex and Rock? What Would the Kaiser Think?" The New York Times: Theatre Reviews. 10 Dec. 2006. Web. 25 Jun 2014.
Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People, and Culture, 1871-1900. 1998. Print.
Wedekind, Frank. Spring Awakening. Trans. Edward Bond. London: Methuen Drama, 2009. Print.
Wilson, Edwin, and Alvin Goldfarb, eds. Living Theatre: A History. Fourth ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004. Print.
Zazzalli, Peter. "Reinventing Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening as a Rock Musical." Communications from the International Brecht Society 36 (2007): 135-42. Print.
"The play isn't out of date. It becomes more relevant as our armies get stronger, our schools, prisons, and bombs bigger, our means of imposing discipline themselves more disciplined and more veiled, and our self-knowledge not much greater."
(Wedekind xxiii)