Mephisto - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Mephisto

A democracy becomes a dictatorship. Everyone has to decide for themselves whether to join in or swim against the tide. The actor Hendrik Höfgen is also in this dilemma but does not want to admit it. "Imprisoned in his ambition," he dreams only of his future fame, which has just begun to blossom. His talent is undisputed and enthusiastic even the new rulers, who like to surround themselves with artists. But many recognize the signs of the times and go abroad, into exile. Also Hendrik stands for a moment before this decision: Go or stay. But living as a poor refugee abroad? He does not have to think twice. He betrays his wife, his companions, his friends and gives himself completely: the intoxication of prominence, of money and the feeling of finally being at the top. And so becomes the "monkey of power, the clown for the dispersion of the murderers".

Klaus Mann has this "novel of a career" - less key novel, to which he is often shortened, because sharp and timeless literary analysis of the political coward - written in 1936 in anger (and exile in Amsterdam): Bitterly he had to register how rampant a baseless Opportunism was spreading. Even and especially artists were no exception. Like Hendrik (and his real role model Gustaf Gründgens) many of them talked about the situation nicely - if it served their own advantage. Mann states in Mephisto the attempt to tell something about those whose career is more important than their conscience, and thus continues to pose valid questions today about artistic self-realization and personal integrity.

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