57. “The Highest Law”

Play in four acts by T. Szafranski
Performance at the Berliner Theater, Berlin

What Mr. Szafranski has brought into the world under the name of "drama" is a real feast for the parties of order of all shades. What he has the people who appear in the work of art say, no one in the circumstances he had in mind would say. Only journalists of various persuasions write it. There is a fool, Emil Treder, who reads the "Vorwärts" every day and in the evenings at the people's meetings, he blurts out the wisdom he has read to his "comrades". One of his "speeches" cost him his bread. He and his family were brought to the depths of misery by the "social democratic delusion". His seducer is a certain Lembke, who, under the pretext of serving the great cause of the party, pursues the most selfish and sordid paths. This Lembke is a figure who is quite impossible in life. Only the worst provincial papers of the "parties of order" paint such personalities on the wall. And Treder's wife? Well, she speaks in the tone of a newspaper for housewives. Not one straight word, not one naive, original sentiment can be discovered in the "play". From beginning to end, one is disgusted by the dullest newspaper writing style. The viewer is assailed by brutalities that are unheard of. Mrs. Treder is dying. The doctor wants to quickly fetch something necessary from the pharmacy. Treder's daughter, with whom he once had a crush, runs into him. She rejected his proposal at the time because she had already gone the way of all prostitutes. Now, however, a lengthy argument develops between the two. It is disgusting to have to watch this doctor rehashing old love stories instead of getting the prescription. And the ending is quite unbearable. A philistine government official happily gives his daughter in marriage to the socialist's son, even though both father and son have been in prison. They were suspected of having stolen a secret decree and handed it over to the "Vorwärts". Yes, he does even more, this brave government official. He converts the socialist, softened by misery, to the conviction that the "highest law" is not to be found in making plans for a blue future, but in "working". The conversion is brought about by the most hollow phrases ever spoken by someone content with life.

The performance in the Berlin theater was no higher than the "art" of the author. Only Maria Pospischil was captivating in her portrayal of Mrs. Treder. This woman has jumped out of the window because her husband's seducer, the evil Lembke, has behaved inappropriately towards her. She dies as a result of the injuries she has sustained. The long, all-too-long death takes place before our eyes. And Maria Pospischil dies with an art that gets to you. You sit there and want to stiffen with horror. I am convinced that many women who were in the theater didn't sleep a wink the whole night after. Maria Pospischil has an admirable command of great tragic tones. This death scene was full of the "truth of life" and at the same time of the finest artistic stylization.