by Merilyn Moos
While Siegi appears to be largely reiterating the classic Third Period position of a ‘united front from below’, what is significant about much of these articles is Siegi’s attempt to apply it to theatre and to argue that the ‘soft’ and more cartoonish approach of some ‘left’ theatre does not bring out enough the politics that divide them from the Social Democrats and fails to lead to political action.
What is also interesting about Siegi’s articles which is not explored here is how far his analysis of the agit-prop is situated in his analysis of capitalism in crisis. Even then, Siegi was adept at digging out figures and analysing how the class system was impoverishing the many to the advantage of the few. His articles damning capitalism then remind their audience of the urgency of organising against it. See, for example, his article from February 1931, to be found in the Appendix.
Finally, with the power of hindsight, it is worth observing how early on Siegi shows a concern with maintaining ‘standards’, rather than opting for easy entertainment, a position which arguably later on in his life, will develop into an elitist condemnation of popular art and populism in general. (This will be considered more fully in the section on Siegi’s 1940 and 50s writing. However, to introduce briefly one personal anecdote from the 1950s: he refused a television in our house until ‘That was the week that was’ miraculously was broadcast in 1962, previously having explained to me that ‘Television rots the mind’.)
There is a very different final article by Siegi which takes the form of a report from the National Congress of Culture (Reich Kulturkongress) from April 1931, which reveals both the ‘cobweb’ of organisations but also the level of repression they were working under. (As stated earlier, it is not possible to know whether this is the last article Siegi wrote or the last to be presently available.) Siegi wrote that at the Congress of Culture, they have representatives from every part of the cultural movement: of literature, sculpture, music, song, the press, revolutionary theatre, film, radio and more. One group represented were the Red Trade Union opposition. Significantly, the article highlights the role of the National Conference of the Freethinkers, which had been on just prior to the Congress. The Congress, the article states, was encouraged to work with and within this ‘movement’.
Here is further evidence for the close association between the Freethinkers and the Agit-prop organisations. Indeed, the Congress of Culture is another manifestation of the cobweb nature of the many different organisations surrounding the KPD, and of a left-wing mass movement. Its civil organisations are woven loosely together, though, by 1931, the dominant discourse, and indeed, dominant control is by the KPD. But this dominance is not of a small political grouping, as we think of the British CP, even in its heyday in the 1920s, but represents a leadership, maybe even an organic leadership, of a living and large mass movement. The workers theatre was one part of this mass movement.
But Siegi’s article also describes the attempts to close down the Conference. Siegi condemns the Social Democratic leadership, in particular in the person of the Social Democratic President of Leipsig, Fleiszner, for condemning the Freethinkers’ material and drawings, as well as the photos and texts from the agit-prop groups. Fleiszner had obtained an injunction to close down the exhibition and confiscate the exhibits, as it was not a ‘cultural’ show. While no evidence has come to light on this, if we assume that what is described here is what basically took place, it indicates how difficult, even dangerous, it was to organise culturally and politically in the last years of the Weimer Republic, and how far the repression enforced by at least some of the Social Democrats leadership paved the way for the Nazis. It also helps an understanding of the main speech delivered by Herman Dunker, a leading member of the KPD, who stated, Siegi tells us: ‘How do we forge a united front of working people against cultural fascism?’
Siegi’s combination of political activism with the use of lyrics, song and theatre was not unusual amongst revolutionary circles in Germany. The revolutionary left in other words had a level of synergy or penetration into cultural activities in the Weimar years. Harry Wilde, a friend of Siegi’s, of whom more anon, worked with Piscator and was a member of the KPD from early in the 1920s. Johannes Becker, an acquaintance or friend of Wilde’s, born in 1891, and who had lived in Munich when young, had been a German expressionist poet and a member of the KPD from 1923, Theodor Plievier, born 1892, a friend of Becher’s, was another German writer and revolutionary, who would indeed after the end of the war, become a leading cultural figure in first in Germany. So Siegi’s use of poetic stories to further revolutionary ends was familiar at the time in the east, then from 1948, W Germany.
Alles an der Roten Start. Music by Stefan Wolpe, lyrics by Siegi Moos
It was not till I was well into writing this biography that two events occurred, both connected to Siegi’s association with Stefan Wolpe. Composer Stefan Wolpe was one of the leading voices in the stand against fascism in Germany during the Weimar Republic and close to the KPD, though probably never a member. Alongside his contemporaries such as Ernst Krenek, Vladimir Vogel and Kurt Weill, he dedicated himself to creating agit prop songs and music for workers’ choruses. Wolpe’ songs and music were performed in a variety of Communist affiliated organisations, such as the ATBD/AITB and numerous agit-prop groups and, as with Hanns Eisler, the songs that Wolpe orchestrated became some of the most popular of the time, especially in Berlin.87
Wolpe and Siegi must have met in the left-wing world of agit-prop. I discovered this connection by accident when Wolpe’s Muziektheater Transparant was due to be performed for the first time in decades at the Edinburgh Festival 2008, including, to my amazement, the orchestration of one of Siegi’s songs. Wolpe’s star is again, after eighty years, apparently on the ascendant.
This is my loose translation of Siegi’s words, with help from Thomas Phlepps:
Do you have sorrow?
Do you have sorrow, do you have worries,
Will Lehmann refuse you further credit:
With us you will find a more beautiful world!
Three hours of forgetfulness for so little money,
Oh for how long have you craved this!
With us there is laughter, with us there are tears.
Refrain:
Come, come and get a ticket!
What we offer is first class!
Come in, come in, come in!
The theatre will be your heaven!
Better than Kintop and better than hooch
The theatre gives you a happy high,
As long as you have a few pennies, don’t give up!
The stars of the stage will beguile you too!
Just for you, are our gifts,
And here you can also get education and new horizons
Refrain
Our theatre also has morality,
Robbery and murder or the pain of love,
Never damages the authority of the state.
We respect the order which now exists
We offer you the best of what is good.
Only happy hours, serious minutes
Refrain88
Other lyrics by Siegi and set by Wolpe are listed in the Bibliographie der deutschen Arbeiterliedblätter 1844-1945 (Bibliography of German Workers songs).89 Siegi was working with Wolpe. Wolpe and Siegi’s collaboration indicates that Siegi had a sufficient reputation from earlier - but now unfindable - work. It is improbable that someone of Wolpe’s stature would have worked with Siegi otherwise. But this script will probably be - sadly - one of a few illustrations of Siegi’s work that can now be retrieved or definitively known about.90 My father never mentioned his work with Wolpe - though he did tell me he knew and liked Eisler.
Phleps, the editor of the Wolpe score and the transcript, highlights that the Sports Revue, Alles an der Roten Start from 1932, which Siegi worked on with Wolpe, has received far less publicity than Wolpe’s earlier work. (Phleps also questions why Wolpe has generally not received more attention, compared to, for examp
le, Weill and Eisler. Though again only conjecture, there would appear to have been factional ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ even amongst the left - leaning musicians in these vital pre-Nazi years, maybe one factor in my father’s subsequent anonymity.) The temporary banning of Rote Fahne, the KPD paper that would normally have given publicity to the Sports Revue at the exact time that the Sports Revue was put on, Phleps suggests, is one key cause, and also provides one reason why I too found it impossible to get information about this work.
The purpose of the Sports Revue, Phleps states, was to give support to the election campaign of the KPD leader Thaelmann,91 further evidence that Wolpe was also at the time close to the KPD. The fate of the Sports Revue illustrates both the political climate in 1932 as well as the - to us today - extraordinary influence of left ideas. The Sports Revue, which was planned for 14th February 1932, was to include a wide variety of acts, from brass bands, choirs, a variety of sports activities through to Wolpe’s ‘Alles an der Roten Start.’ Wolpe composed the music, which was supposed to be easily understood by the masses. Siegi wrote many of the lyrics. Wolpe apparently directed the rehearsals with enthusiasm. Central to the Sports Revue organisation was ‘der Fichte’ (discussed earlier).
We can learn something more of the Revue from references to it in Rote Fahne and other Communist leaning press before the actual performance. For example, on 31st January 1932, Rote Fahne comments approvingly that there is a new initiative by the Red Sports group, a group which had close ties with the Berlin working class and whose performances have been sell outs. Its task, we are told, is propaganda for the united front (Beware interpreting this as meaning a united front with the Social Democratic leadership-it is not. This is a call for joint action with their membership only). The Revue is mentioned regularly from then on until the Rote Fahne is repeatedly banned: on the 9th February, the 11th February etc. Berlin am Montag (another KPD dominated paper) on the 9 February 1932 stated that the most important problems in sport today will be dealt with in the Revue. And there was much else besides.
But the Revue ran into many difficulties, not just with the police and the SDP (who ran Berlin) but also with the KPD. (Sadly, Phleps does not go into detail as to what the cause of the disagreement was between the Revue and the KPD.) However, the police clearly took exception to the Revue. Rote Fahne on the 14th February, presumably published before it was banned but before the performance of the Revue, reported a new attack on the Revolutionary Sports people and that, because of the censorship board implemented under the new emergency legislation, the police had announced that day at 11.30a.m.that they were putting Alles an der Roten Start under surveillance and threatened to put an immediate stop to the performance should any scenes performed break Paragraph 11. What appears to have caused the police particular disquiet was a film which was to be shown during the intervals and which was seen as effecting the ‘present State in a negative manner’ – though it was composed of publicly available clips - which had been banned by the film censors.
The Revue was to take place in the International Sports Palace.92 According to the two reviews in existence, the Revue never finished because the police did stop it. Right at the beginning, there was an announcement from the stage that the Police President did not like the Revue’s line on the USSR, had classified this event as a political rally and it was therefore under surveillance. According to Die Welt am Abend, the person announcing this said ‘Our answer is to vote for Thaelmann for Vice President‘ and everybody cheered and clapped.93
The police kept to their word. Again according to Die Welte am Abend of the 15th February 1932, towards the end of the show, when (Siegi’s) song ‘All Warmongers cry for war,’ was being performed to tremendous applause, there was an announcement from the stage that the Troupe had been banned and that the Revue had to stop. The curtain was drawn back to reveal one police officer and a plain clothes officer walking across the stage followed by the actors and other participants marching behind them. The stage was soon full of police. Loud singing erupted during (Siegi’s) song: ’strengthen your muscles’, and amidst an enormous amount of noise and excitement, a large Red Flag was pulled across the stage which stated ‘For a Red United Front. Vote for Thaelmann‘. Apparently, it was an amazing scene, which concluded by the dignified singing of the Internationale. The paper reported that Wolpe’s music was not always well chosen, but the songs were great, especially ’steel our Muscles’. The Red Sports people, who presumably had been interviewed, stated that in spite of everything, ‘we cannot be stopped’.
This tale of ‘cat and mouse’ gives a sense of how difficult and threatening working in agit-prop was at this point, even though this is almost a year before the Nazis take power. What it also confirms is the earlier analysis of the close tie between Red Sport and Siegi’s role, in this case as a lyricist, in agit-prop.
To give a brief overview of the three characters in ‘Alles an der Roten Start’: Walter Vogel, a lowly white collar worker is often hungry and unrealistically strives for importance but, thwarted, ends up turning to sport, Marie Schmidt, aged 20, a factory worker produces commodities but remains poor, and Anton Schmidt is unemployed because he has been rationalised out of the productive process and after a long struggle, meets up with the Red Sports group. Through life and the struggle, the actors demonstrate how revolutionary sports people can be victorious. It ended, or would have ended, by the demand for a Red United Front and a vote for Thaelmann.
Below are three lyrics from the performance by Siegi, although the notes on ‘Alles an der Roten Start’, state Siegi wrote four ‘lieder’ but it is not completely clear which the fourth one is. Even without a good knowledge of German, the rhythm and rhyming of these ‘poems’ are clear. Despite the absence of Rote Fahne, the following three lyrics have all been taken from the press reviews on ‘Alles an der Roten Start’ and suggest how widely these poems will have been read and spread, possibly more so than Wolpe’s musical score which would not have been reproduced or understood so easily in print.
All out for the Red Start by Siegfried Moos (Trans: Irene Fick)
Marie Schmidt was 20 then
Every day she worked all day
She produced commodities
Yet she remained in poverty.
As she learns from watching films
Marie lives – she waits and waits
For the miracle to come.
Success comes with her start!
Walter Vogel was a small
Employee in a company,
Almost famished he lives by
His fantasy of being grand.
If promotion doesn’t come
Sport is used as substitute.
Always start on Red!94
This is Sport by Siegfried Moos (Trans by Irene Fick)
This is the sport of the ruling class
This is the essence of capitalism:
Each person breaks with the masses, or a person pulls away from the masses
And pursues his search for profit.
And if it means forfeiting life,
hat won’t stop him; he must succeed
II
1. Capital is fearful of the thoughts
Of those that toil for famine wages.
To distract the oppressed from the struggle
Hear the radio, press: Look at the sporting aces!
2. But not enough: the profiteers
Of capital, not satisfied with this distraction, say
In order to forget your class, you must
Use sport to prepare for our war.
III
1. The sportsmen call: do not be silent!
Attention now: No need to wait!
top kowtowing
Now attention! Go! Wait no longer.
Hone your muscles! Focus your eyes!
Sharpen your brains! Work your lungs!
We must be fit for our struggle,
Right until we reach our goal.
2. Recruit today to strike tomorrow.
Today we struggle and discuss.
No one will stop us, we will not be hushed,
Red sportspeople on the march.
Hone your muscles!…
3. Red sportsmen fight for all,
For the causes of their class
Unforgiving against all those
Who oppose the broad masses.
Hone your muscles!…
4. Solidarity of sportsmen
of all countries, of all races.
Solidarity of sportsmen
For the final battle of the classes.
Hone your muscles!…
IV
Red sportsmen don’t believe that
Sport alone can liberate.
Then join the red fighting front
To be soldiers of the class struggle.
Hone your body, recruit in word and deed;
Always prepared – march into struggle “Red Sport”94
From Berlin: Arbeitersportverlag [1932]
Fichte in the Große Schauspielhaus (Great/Grand Theatre) by Siegfried Moos (trans Irene Fick)
Hone your muscles! Focus your eyes!
Sharpen your brains! Work your lungs!