Bertolt Brecht and Hangmen Also Die

Bertolt Brecht and "Hangmen Also Die" REINHOLD GRIMM, University of Wisconsin HENRY J. SCHMIDT, Ohio State University

Recently a copy of the filmscript, Hangmen Also Die, was discovered in the Film Archives of the University of Wisconsin. Brecht stated in 1947 that he furnished the story for the film, but the extent of his collaboration is not known. The film, which begins with the assassination of the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich and dramatizes the subsequent search for the assassins, owes far more to Hollywood than it does to Brecht, yet there are numerous "Brechtian" details. Correspondences exist between the filmscript and such works as Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg, the poems "Im Zeichen der Schildkriite" and "Das Lidicelied," and the essay "Fiinf Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der Wahrheit." The sympathetic portrayal of the Czech proletariat would appear to have originated with Brecht. (R.G. and H.S.)

When Bertolt Brecht appeared before the House Committee on Un- American Activities on October 30, 1947, he was asked whether he had ever been employed in the motion-picture industry. His answer: "Yes; I- yes. I sold a story to a Hollywood firm, 'Hangmen Also Die,' but I did not write the screenplay myself. I am not a professional screenplay writer. .. ." He stated that the story was sold to United Artists: "I don't remember exactly, maybe around '43 or '44; I don't remember quite."' It is known that during his stay in Southern California Brecht turned to the Hollywood movie industry for financial reasons. Although he wrote a number of outlines and stories for the screen, Hangmen Also Die was the only film even- tually produced with his collaboration. He apparently disassociated himself from this venture before the film was completed.2 His vague recollec- tion of his contribution to Hangmen before the Un-American Activities Committee (the script of Hangmen was fully completed already in Decem- ber 1942) and the paucity of information on similar projects would seem to indicate that Brecht was interested more in the remuneration than in the intellectual stimulation of such work.3 Commentators such as Joseph Losey4 have remarked that the final product owes far more to Hollywood than to Brecht; nevertheless, Brecht's contributions to the film have never been assessed in detail.

Recently a copy of the filmscript5 was discovered in the Film Archives of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. According to the title page, the MfdU, Vol. LXI, No. 3, 1969

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 22:02:33 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"Hangmen also Die" 233

film was to be called Never Surrender!, which was subsequently crossed out and replaced with Hangmen Also Die. Below the title is written: "SCREENPLAY by John Wexley. ORIGINAL STORY by Fritz Lang & Berthold [sic] Brecht." In the lower left-hand corner the manuscript is dated: "FINAL DRAFT October 16th, 1942." The script contains 192 pages and is divided into 490 "shots." A number of pages are missing (111, 113, 120, 123, 124, 133), and on occasion earlier versions of certain scenes appear along with suggestions for possible changes addressed to "Dear Fritz." Handwritten directions for cuts and revisions appear in the margins and even on the title page; none of these are in Brecht's hand- writing. Pp. 1-2 list the cast of characters. These sheets were apparently used for preliminary casting, for the names of a dozen actors were written in by hand for approximately the first quarter of the cast. These names in- clude Walter Brennan as "Professor STEPAN NOVOTNY," Anna Lee as "MASCHA," and "Mrs. Brecht" as "Mrs. DVORAK, Grocery Woman."6

The title of the film leads one to expect that the Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, assassinated in May 1942 in Prague, would be the central figure of the plot. Hangmen, however, concentrates less upon the assassination itself than upon its consequences: the oppressive yet futile attempts of the Nazis to apprehend the assassin and the reaction of the Czech people toward the event and its aftermath. Since the story of Hangmen was conceived and written in the same year as the assassination, the actuality of the theme and the tendency in Hollywood in those years to produce anti-Nazi propaganda films may have induced Brecht and his collaborators to present Heydrich in barest outlines as a grotesque caricature of the ruthless Nazi, who is "contemptuous," "effeminate," "hysterical with fe- rocity" (changed pp. 2a, 3).

The film begins with Heydrich in Prague berating Czech officials. He gets into a car and is never seen again. Only in the ensuing street scenes does it become obvious that he has been shot: Dr. Frantichek Svoboda is shown fleeing through the streets of Prague; a girl, Mascha Novotna, who has stopped at Mrs. Dvorak's store, directs the police away from Svoboda. The news of the assassination attempt on Heydrich spreads through Prague, and martial law is declared. Looking for a place to hide, Svoboda appears on Mascha's doorstep. He is introduced to her family as Karel Vanek, a casual acquaintance. To avoid exposing Svoboda to the danger of curfew violation, Prof. Stepan Novotny, Mascha's father, gallantly invites him to spend the night, although both father and daughter suspect Svoboda's role in the assassination.

Meanwhile, the Gestapo question Mrs. Dvorak about Mascha. Emil Czaka, a beer brewer, helps the Gestapo prepare a list of hostages for


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eventual execution. One of the first hostages to be arrested the following morning is Prof. Novotny. Mascha and Svoboda witness his arrest, but Novotny tells them to take heart, for the Czechs would rather die than become traitors. Svoboda returns to his clinic, where he tells Dedic, a leader of the Czech Underground, that he wishes to give himself up to save the lives of the hostages. Dedic convinces him not to betray the cause for which they are fighting, whereupon Mascha appears. Having traced Svoboda to the clinic, she begs him to save her father. Svoboda warns her that a denunciation would endanger her entire family, and she runs out in desperation. On the way to Gestapo headquarters she is intercepted by Dedic, but as she breaks away from him, a crowd gathers and accuses her of treachery. At the Gestapo she wavers and finally decides only to plead for her father. The police become suspicious and confront her with Mrs. Dvorak, who under pain of torture has refused to tell the Gestapo the truth. The Nazi officers Gruber, Haas, and Ritter detain Mascha while her house is being searched. Then they obligingly release her, and she runs off to see her fianc6 Jan Horek, who has heard about Svoboda's visit and is becoming jealous. The Gestapo promptly arrest Mascha again and interrogate the entire Novotny family, including Prof. Novotny in the prison camp, where periodically hostages are being picked out for execution. Just as Mascha is about to be tortured, the Nazis discover that "Karel Vanek" has left a note at Mascha's home, asking to see her that afternoon. Once again Mascha is released and meets Svoboda as planned. Aware that the Gestapo are listening in, Svoboda and Mascha pretend to be lovers, and the gullible Nazis are taken in, but since Svoboda has generously re- vealed his true identity, Gruber checks up on him anyway, discovering that Svoboda was assisting at an operation at the time of the assassination.

Posing as an agent of the underground, Emil Czaka has tried un- successfully to convince the conspirators to betray Heydrich's murderer; now he tries to bribe Gruber to provide him with police protection. Gruber accepts. The Underground calls Czaka to another meeting, where he acci- dentally betrays himself by revealing that he understands German. The infuriated conspirators attack him, but the Gestapo break in, killing a transport worker and wounding Dedic. The others are arrested. Gruber begins searching for Dedic by raiding Svoboda's apartment, where he finds Svoboda with a half-dressed Mascha in the bedroom. Gruber politely apologizes and orders Jan Horek brought in. After Mascha rejects her fianc6, he and Gruber leave in disgust. Meanwhile the profusely bleeding Dedic has been hiding behind a window curtain. At the point of death, he unfolds to Svoboda a plan to save the Resistance.

The plan begins with Mascha. Seeing Czaka in a restaurant, she claims that he is the person she saw escaping after Heydrich's assassina-



tion. A cab driver corroborates her story, and Czaka, ever more perplexed, insists he was in a restaurant during the shooting. The entire staff denies that he was there, however, and Czaka's other alibis are systematically deflated. He realizes that only his friend Gruber can extricate him from this universal conspiracy, but Gruber cannot be found.

Gruber has spent the night drinking with Jan and two girls. In Jan's room the following morning both men suddenly realize that the Svoboda- Mascha love scene was staged. Jan wants to protect Mascha from the Gestapo; after a fight, Gruber subdues Jan and ties him to his bed, but Mascha's little brother Beda turns up almost immediately to free Jan. Gruber confronts Svoboda at the hospital, and Svoboda admits that he murdered Heydrich. Svoboda and a colleague stand with drawn scalpels opposite Gruber with his gun. Jan enters suddenly, and Gruber is over- powered.

Hearing from Jan that Gruber visited Czaka that morning, the Nazis troop off to Czaka's house and find a veritable treasure of incriminating evidence: the murder weapon, a mimeograph machine, and Gruber's body. Czaka is shot "while escaping," and the elated Nazis generously release everybody else, but it is too late to save Prof. Novotny, who is one of the last hostages to be shot.

In this cloak-and-dagger tale of brutality and romance there is un- doubtedly little which could be called characteristically Brechtian. The hand of Fritz Lang is obvious in the fast pacing of the melodrama, and such a figure as Mascha reflects the cardboard traits of the typical Holly- wood heroine7-a portrayal which can probably be credited to Wexley. There are a considerable number of details, however, which can either be traced directly to Brecht's writings or which reflect his thought and style. Between the years 1941-44 Brecht was working on the anti-Nazi play, Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg, which also takes place in Prague. The St. Pankraz Hospital and the Gestapo Headquarters in the Petschek Bank, two important locations in the film, are both mentioned in Schweyk, and in one of Schweyk's innumerable anecdotes there is a reference to a brewer named Czaka.8 Shot #259 of Hangmen (p. 106), in which Gruber interrogates a surgeon in the St. Pankraz Hospital, fleetingly betrays a touch of Brecht: at the end of the dialogue, the two men part with the words:

DR. KESSELBACH (salutes): Hei' 'tler! GRUBER (grunts): Hei' 'tler!

In an early scene of Schweyk, an SS-man prepares to leave the tavern where he has been talking and drinking with Schweyk and his friends:

SS-MANN: ... Heitler.


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BALOUN (steht ebenfalls auf): Heil Hitler. SCHWEYK (der hinzugetreten ist): Du mugt nicht sagen "Heil Hitler,"

sondern wie der Herr, ders wissen mul, "Heitler," das zeigt, daB dus gewohnt bist und es auch im Schlaf sagst, zu Haus. (Werke, Vol. V, p. 1919)

During the opening scene of Hangmen before Heydrich's entrance, Nazi aids complain to Czech spokesmen about the workers' revolt at the Skoda armament works. Propaganda leaflets have been passed out, which the script describes as follows:

INSERT: THROWAWAYS, of various sizes-each being rapidly placed on top of the other: 1. Rudely-drawn TURTLE, with inscription: "CZECH WORKERS! RE-

MEMBER THE TURTLE!" Printed on the Turtle itself is: "SLOW DOWN!"

2. A comically YAWNING TURTLE 3. A REPOSING TURTLE, in Stan Laurel take-off of Raphaelite angel 4. A big GRANDPA TURTLE, lying blissfully on back with folded

forelegs, looking dreamily up at clouds containing letters: "SLOW DOWN!" (Changed p. 2)

The image is unmistakably Brechtian: toward the end of the war Brecht wrote a poem entitled "Im Zeichen der Schildkrite,"9 here quoted in its entirety:

Im vierten Jahr aber entstieg der blutigen Flut Ein kleines Tier, eine Schildkrite Und sie trug in dem winzigen Rachen Einen zierlichen Olzweig. Bald erschien ihr Bild, wie von Kinderhand gezeichnet An den Winden der Maschinenhallen Auf den Asphaltbiden der Bomberwerften In den Werkzeugbinken der Tankfabriken. Und wo die Kleine sich zeigte Die Ungeschickte, die Langsame Krochen die Tanks aus den Hallen bresthaft Hoben die Bomber sich krinklich Vermehrten die U-Boote sich lustlos zigernd: Kam die Zeugung der Unfruchtbaren und Tiidlichen ins Stocken. Das Wappentier der Unteren kiimpfte Mit dem Wappentier der Oberen. Der Raubadler des Reichs Liel das Nest nur ungern allein: Die Schildkrite frai Die Eier voll des Unheils. (Werke, Vol. X, pp. 855-856)



The poem and the filmscript correspond even in minute details. Not only do both deal with the production of armaments, but both picture the turtle as a bringer of peace ("Raphaelite angel"-"Und sie trug in dem winzigen Rachen/Einen zierlichen Olzweig"). In Hangmen the turtle is "rudely- drawn," in the poem, "wie von Kinderhand gezeichnet"; that is, the Brechtian Underground is not a professional organization with Madison- Avenue techniques, but a spontaneous expression of the people. In fact, Hangmen, again prompted by Brecht, elevates the anonymous worker to the poet of the Czech rebellion. During a scene in the hostage camp (pp. 107-108), Professor Novotny is playing chess with Necval, "our most distinguished poet." A railway worker named Pechacek shyly ap- proaches Necval with a piece of paper, saying, "I happened to scribble down something today--just a few lines for a song, maybe. I thought- you being such a big writer-if you have time, you'd please look it over and fix it up a bit.. ." He reads the poem aloud:

Brother-the time has come! Brother-work to be done! Take hold the Invisible Torch, and pass it on! Maybe you will die . . . maybe you will not, But never let them take you, Brother-if you shoot or you are shot! Today you are beaten, today they hold you chattel, But this war will be determined-by the very final battle!

Necval studies it: "Hm . . . 'Invisible Torch' . . . I don't know . . . Maybe... (looks up, nods) No, my friend. Let's have it just as it stands." Just before Pechacek is to be executed, the hostages join in chorus, singing his "Song of Freedom" in tribute (p. 167). At the end of the film the song recurs again as a heroic hymn to the Resistance, first as "ghostly singing" overshadowing the final scenes, then ending "triumphantly-now many, many voices coming in to take up the last lines" (pp. 191-192). With this optimistic ending in mind, by the way, the original title of the film, Never Surrender! seems far more appropriate than Hangmen Also Die.

A German version of the "Song of Freedom" exists in Brecht's col- lected works. Brecht called it "Das Lidicelied:"

Bruder, es ist Zeit Bruder, sei bereit Gib die unsichtbare Fahne weiter jetzt! Im Sterben nicht anders als einstmals im Leben Wirst du nicht, Genosse, dich diesen ergeben. Heut bist du besiegt und drum bist du der Knecht Doch der Krieg endet erst mit dem letzten Gefecht Doch der Krieg endet nicht vor dem letzten Gefecht.1o

(Werke, Vol. X, p. 852; second stanza omitted)


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Brecht, like Necval, would have had reservations about the "Invisible Torch." Hollywood apparently found it necessary to eliminate the Com- munist implications of "die unsichtbare Fahne" and "Genosse"; otherwise Pechacek's song is a close translation of Brecht's. The song in its final setting reminds us once again of Schweyk: after Schweyk's "historic meeting" with Hitler, the entire cast take off their masks, come forward and sing:

Es wechseln die Zeiten. Die riesigen Pliine Der Miichtigen kommen am Ende zum Halt. Und gehn sie einher auch wie blutige Hthne Es wechseln die Zeiten, da hilft kein [sic] Gewalt. Am Grunde der Moldau wandern die Steine Es liegen drei Kaiser begraben in Prag. Das GroBe bleibt groB nicht und klein nicht das Kleine. Die Nacht hat zwiSlf Stunden, dann kommt schon der Tag.

(Werke, Vol. V, pp. 1993-1994)

As a poet, Brecht was very much aware of the semantic subtlety involved in the manipulation of the masses through the word. Two years after he had fled from Nazi persecution in Germany, he wrote the essay "Fiinf Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der Wahrheit," in which he states that the clever use of certain words can either obscure or reveal truth in an otherwise objective account. One of his illustrative examples seems to foreshadow a passage in Hangmen. Brecht writes of Confucius in the last of the five "Schwierigkeiten":

Konfutse fiilschte einen alten, patriotischen Geschichtskalender. Er ver- iinderte nur gewisse Wdrter. Wenn es hieB: "Der Herrscher von Kun lieI3 den Philosophen Wan titen, weil er das und das gesagt hatte," setzte Konfutse statt titen "ermorden." HieB es, der Tyrann Soundso sei durch ein Attentat umgekommen, setzte er "hingerichtet worden." Dadurch brach Konfutse einer neuen Beurteilung der Geschichte Bahn.

(Werke, Vol. XVIII, p. 231)

In Hangmen, the Underground discusses the effectiveness of the Nazi countermeasures after the assassination: "I would say, the Germans have succeeded, in part, in shattering the unity of the city. Many people are now using the word 'assassin,' whereas before they spoke of him only as the 'Executioner.' (changed p. 139)

Finally, the central theme of Hangmen-the revolt of the Czech people, especially the workers against the Nazis-is constructed along Brechtian lines. The common man in Hangmen is never a traitor, and the villain of the film, the brewer Czaka, is a nouveau riche whose home mani-



fests an "atmosphere of wealth and poor taste" (p. 114). Admittedly the elaborate plot to implicate Czaka in Heydrich's murder is highly contrived (and it may well have been different in Brecht's original story), yet it shows at the same time the unity of spirit existing among the lower classes1' and the effectiveness of such unity.12 True, they do not evolve a specific program of revolt; theirs is a spontaneous reaction to the specific event of Heydrich's murder. Their staunch idealism is expressed by two men: the hostage Pechacek, as we have already pointed out, and Professor Novotny, whose testament to posterity describes a Brechtian utopia, free of terror, a paradise not merely for the materialist but for the dialectical thinker:

Those will be good days to live! It will be a land where all men and women and children will have enough good food to eat, time to read and to think-and to talk things over with one another, for their own good. (p. 121)

1 "From the Testimony of Berthold Brecht," in Brecht: a Collection of Critical Essays, Peter Demetz, ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1962), p. 32. 2 Werner Hecht, the editor of the forthcoming Texte fiir Filme by Brecht (two volumes), writes "daB Brecht . . . gegen die Verunstaltung seines Films durch Wexley sowie durch Lang mehrfach sehr scharf protestiert hat." (Letter to Rein- hold Grimm, May 3, 1968). 8 See Martin Esslin, Brecht: The Man and his Work (Garden City, New York, 1961), pp. 69-70; Reinhold Grimm, Bertolt Brecht (Stuttgart, 21963), p. 39; Frederic Ewen, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, his Art, and his Times (New York, 1967), p. 386.

4Cahiers du Cindma, Vol. XIX, No. 114 (December 1960), p. 30; see also an article entitled "Fritz Lang und Bert Brecht," Neue Ziircher Zeitung, December 16, 1961, p. 16. 5 In a letter dated January 1, 1969 Werner Hecht writes: "Nach meinen neuesten Nachforschungen . . . ist das 'Idealskript' von HANGMEN ALSO DIE von Brecht und Wexley geschrieben und dann beim Umfang, wie Brecht schreibt, von 'erst' 70 Seiten abgebrochen worden." According to Hecht, Brecht originally intended to name the film, "Trust the People." Hecht continues: "Er beabsichtigte, falls es eine Chance geben sollte, wieder einmal 'Versuche' herauszubringen, die Aufnahme einiger seiner Filmszenen (die im Arbeitsjournal im einzelnen beschrieben sind)."

6 Ewen states that the film starred Walter Browning, Gene Lockhart, Brian Donlevy, Anna Lee, and Alexander Granach (p. 386). Hanns Eisler composed the score, but he is not mentioned in the filmscript.

7 One significant exception must be noted: at one point Masha finds herself in the typical predicament of the Brechtian heroine (Mutter Courage, Shen Te, Grusche), whose spontaneous humanity leads to insoluble complications. During a dialogue with Svoboda, Mascha discovers that her intention of betraying Svoboda to the police would endanger her entire family, for they all helped shield the assassin from the police. Svoboda reminds her as "a simple statement of fact" that she must weigh one death against five. Mascha responds sardonically:

You have it all nicely worked out, haven't you? If I tell them-then all my family will be shot. If I keep silent-only my father will be shot. In other words, your "simple statement of fact" is-we are lost, in any case-because we were generous enough to save your life! (changed p. 59).

The scene might well be titled with the poignant line from Der Kaukasische Kreide- kreis: "Schrecklich ist die Verfiihrung zur Giite!"


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8Bertolt Brecht: Gesammelte Werke, Vol. V, Werkausgabe Edition Suhrkamp (Frankfurt am Main, 1967), p. 1939. The name "Novotny" also occurs (p. 1979), but this figure bears no resemblance to Mascha's father.

9 "Skandinavische Widerstandskimpfer zeichneten wiihrend der Nazi-Besetzung eine Schildkrite auf Ziige und Mauern, um zur Verlangsamung der Arbeit auf- zufordern." -Footnote to the poem in Bertolt Brecht: Gedichte, Vol. VI (Suhr- kamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1964), p. 11.

10 "Das Lidicelied schrieb Brecht fiir den Film Hangmen also Die, an dessen Story und Drehbuch er grol3en Anteil [!] hatte. Der Film zeigt den Widerstand des tschechischen Volkes gegen den hitlerischen Terror." -Anmerkungen, Werke, Vol. X, p. 20*.

11 With one exception: a well-to-do Czech businessman also testifies against Czaka. 12 The Resistance has not been able to dupe the Nazis completely, but the Nazis

are powerless to press for any further action. They must accept as a final irony that "there remains rather serious doubt that the aforementioned Czaka was really the assassin ... But in view of the fact that the sharpest terror failed to force the people to denounce anyone else, we are compelled to save the face of the German Occupa- tional Authority-and choose the lesser evil, by accepting Czaka as the assassin, and thus close the case." (changed p. 192)


Article Contentsp. [232]p. 233p. 234p. 235p. 236p. 237p. 238p. 239p. 240

Issue Table of ContentsMonatshefte, Vol. 61, No. 3 (Fall, 1969), pp. 225-336Karl Gutzkows "Die Ritter vom Geiste": Notizen ber Struktur und Ideologie [pp. 225-231]Bertolt Brecht and "Hangmen Also Die" [pp. 232-240]Brechts "Trommeln in der Nacht" als literarische Satire [pp. 241-260]Personalia 1969-70 [pp. 261-292]Dissertations in Progress [p. 292-292]Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 293-294]Review: untitled [pp. 294-295]Review: untitled [pp. 295-297]Review: untitled [pp. 297-299]Review: untitled [pp. 299-300]Review: untitled [pp. 300-302]Review: untitled [pp. 302-304]Review: untitled [pp. 304-306]Review: untitled [pp. 306-307]Review: untitled [pp. 307-308]Review: untitled [pp. 308-309]Review: untitled [pp. 309-311]Review: untitled [pp. 311-312]Review: untitled [pp. 313-314]Review: untitled [pp. 314-317]Review: untitled [pp. 317-319]

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Bertolt Brecht and Hangmen Also Die