ROLF HOCHHUTH
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should be taught to see in every one of his fellows, be he ever
90
fleabitten and personally distasteful, a creature to be respected as an
individual, as a creature of God, just like oneself.
MARX:
Are there any other themes or subjects about which you feel you
could write as forceful and dramatic a playas
The Deputy?
HOCHHUTH:
Oh, yes. But by this I do not wish to imply that I will
again be lucky enough to write as good a play,
if
I have written a
good play at all. But themes of this sort exist, alas, in multitudes.
MARX:
What would these themes be, for instance?
HOCHHUTH:
Well, take for example that appalling fact which began to
establish itself in European history only since the 'twenties, but which
has since then established itself ever more firmly. In the First World
War, as far as I know, it was still an unthinkable thing that both
warring factions should, without so much as stopping to think,
implicate individuals, civilians, in the military action. No soldier then
who had any sense of honor in him would have shot without hesitation
at women and children. The Second World War, and previous to that,
the Spanish Civil War, (just think of Picasso's picture, "Guernica")
were to institute it as a matter of most idiotic fact for both sides
to wage war quite naturally against open cities. This might be a good
subject for a play: to what exent is a soldier obligated to refuse the
command
to
kill civilians?
Now you might be of the opinion that this is a banal question,
a platitude. But I believe that the topics which are of the greatest
concern to aU of us are always these very banalities, subject matters
which are, as it were, lying around in the street, waiting to be picked
up. The subject matter of
The Deputy
was also lying in the street.
I would be inclined to say that it could become an artistic program to
pick up those topics off the streets.
MARX:
Mr. Hochhuth, what is your artistic program for the future?
HOCHHUTH:
I would like to write a play and then three or four short
stories, if I can.
MARX:
Do you already have a subject for the play?
HOCHHUTH:
Yes, certainly, but it is as yet a little
too
complicated to
speak about it, and above all things, it would be premature because
I am still working on the plot outline and am not quite certain about
the direction in which things will develop. It isn't as if one were
in
full command of one's material beforehand. To begin with the material
commands the writer. One must find a way of grasping and shaping it.
MARX:
Mr. Hochhuth, before
The Deputy
was published and per-
