Der zerbrochene Krug

Viktor Ullmann composed his setting of Heinrich von Kleist’s popular dramatic comedy in 1942 between his two operas Der Sturz des Antichrist [The Fall of Antichrist] (1936) and Der Kaiser von Atlantis [The Emperor of Atlantis] (1943) against the background of an increasingly bleak political situation.

The score was completed only a few weeks prior to Ullmann’s deportation to the concentration camp Theresienstadt. Nonetheless, these tragic omens appear only to have had an underlying effect on the humorous and trenchant work. On a superficial level, Ullmann largely adheres to Kleist’s text (albeit with highly effective abridgements) and concisely relates the story of the village judge Adam who has to pass judgement on his own misdeed – the broken pitcher of Marthe – and is ultimately unmasked as the true culprit.

Closer study of the text reveals several passages which can clearly be interpreted as a commentary on the iniquities of the justice system under the Third Reich. Specifically, the final verse, written by Ullmann himself, is set in the context of the Nazi’s Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court) and its henchmen in the red robes of judges, a witty but undisguised warning: ‘Fiat justitia, | damals wie ebenda: | Richter soll keiner sein, | ist nicht sein Herze rein.’ (Fiat justitia: then as now, no-one should be a judge if his heart is not pure).