Dada Berlin: "A History of Performance (1918-1920)"

Author(s): Mel Gordon

Source: The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 18, No. 2, Rehearsal Procedures Issue and Berlin Dada
(Jun., 1974), pp. 114-124
Published by: The MIT Press
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 A History of Performance (1918-1920)

Dada Berlin
By Mel Gordon

During recitals of simultaneous poetry

of the most incomprehensible kind, we
attacked the art-loving, Boulevard
public with toy guns, toilet paper, false
beards, and the poetry of Wolfgang
Goethe and Rudolf Presber... Under
the motto "Art is shit!", the Dadas
began their demolition ... (of
bourgeois culture).
Erwin Piscator
In the years 1918, 1919, and 1920, the Berlin Dada movement, mounting less than
thirty productions, exerted a formidable, if indirect, influence over the development
of the German theatre. This influence would later lead to the dismantling of Ex-
pressionism as the dominant theatrical force in Central Europe. Retooling the theories
and performance techniques that they inherited from the Futurists and the Zurich
Dadas to their own specifications, the Berlin Dadas introduced the use of pure-
onomatopoetic or vowel-sound and abstract movement, improvisation,
simultaneous and illogical actions, verbal and physical assault on the spectator, anti-
illusionist scenic design, and the incorporation of popular entertainments, such as
cabaret acts and cinema, into German performance. Together with these novel theat-
rical devices and through direct attacks on Expressionism, the Berlin Dadas laid the
foundations for many of the anti-illusionist movements of the post-World War One
era-Piscator's Epic Theatre, the agitational revues of the German Communist Party
(KPD), Oskar Schlemmer's theatre workshop at the Bauhaus, the Constructivist ex-
periments of El Lissitzky and Frederick Kiesler in Hanover and Vienna, and JirfFrejka's
Devetsil group in Prague.
Unfortunately, the actual records of the Berlin Dada performances remain frag-
mentary and frequently inconsistent, despite a rather lavish coverage accorded them
by the local newspapers. This and the sometimes confused recollections of the Dadas
themselves would account for the paucity-and often inaccuracy-of the secondary
literature. The following material is based on the newspaper records, programs,
memoirs, and Dadaist records of the time.
Six months after the closing of the first Dada theatre, the Cabaret Voltaire in
Zurich, Richard Huelsenbeck returned to Berlin. Although we can only conjecture
what his mental state was at the time-January 1917--it would appear that it was
hardly good. His life-long friend and mentor, Hugo Ball, had terminated all relation-
ship with the Zurich Dadas and the Cabaret Voltaire to live the life of a monk with his
mistress Emmy Hennings in Ticino. Suffering from a "nervous stomach" and insomnia,
Huelsenbeck was unable to leave Zurich for weeks; finally, the news of his father's
declining health brought him back to Berlin.
Virtually every general survey of Dada marks Huelsenbeck's arrival in Berlin in
January 1917 as the beginning of the Dada movement in Berlin, yet for the next thir-
teen months we have no record of any Dada activity or performance; in fact, the word
"Dada," except in reference to the Cabaret Voltaire, is never mentioned. Then, early
in 1918, after a full year in Berlin, Huelsenbeck decided to give a reading. He invited

Title photograph is of Wieland Heartfield,demonstratingthe Dada-Slogan"EveryMan is His

Own Football."

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 DADA BERLIN 115

Max Herrmann-Neisse and Theodor Daubler, two Expressionist poets he met at the
Cafe des Westen, and his friend Grosz, whose grotesque paintings were becoming
well-known, to accompany him. The evening was set for J. B. Neumann's Gallery, the
Graphisches Kabinett, on February 18, 1918. Thus, after submitting his work to the
government censors, Huelsenbeck arrived at the Graphisches Kabinett.

The reading took place in a small room on the first floor of the
building. I told Herr Neumann I would give a brief introductory
speech. Which was all right with him. Then, without his or my
friends knowledge, I spoke about Dada. I said the reading was dedi-
cated to Dada.
(Richard Huelsenbeck, Memoirs of a Dada Drummer, forthcoming)

Flourishing his cane, "violent, perhaps arrogant, and unmindful of the conse-
quences," Huelsenbeck proceeded to read what was later published as "The First
Dada-Speech in Germany." As Georges Hugnet pointed out in his The Dada Spirit in
Painting, "Huelsenbeck's lecture ... was much less combative than the German Dada
activities were to become." In fact, the beginning of the speech reads like a youthful,
but modest, travelog of the activities of the Cabaret Voltaire of two years before:

We had to find some common ground between the Russians, Ru-

manians, Swiss, and Germans. There was a witches' sabbat such as
you cannot imagine, a hurrying and scurrying from morning until
evening, an intoxication of drums and tom-toms, an ecstasy of tap
and Cubist dances.
(Richard Huelsenbeck, "First Dada-Speech in Germany," in Dada
Almanach 1920)

Later in the speech, Huelsenbeck denigratingly referred to the Cabaret Voltaire

as an "experimental stage." Only when he began to recite examples of his imitative
African, lautgedichte (sound-poems), the Phantastische Gebete (Fantastic Prayers),
did the audience and gallery owner stir. In fact, Neumann, the proprietor, was already
at the telephone, threatening to call the police. Huelsenbeck's friends immediately
intervened. As a rebuff to Neumann, Huelsenbeck shouted out that the Dadas were in
favor of war and that even the last one was not bloody enough.

Horror! An invalid with a wooden leg got up and the audience rose
to their feet and accompanied his exit with applause ... The
audience not merely rose to their feet but moved toward the ros-
trum in order to hurl themselves at me. But as is usual in such situa-
tions (I went through many like it in my Dada time), public fury was
checked by a kind of awe.
(Huelsenbeck, forthcoming)

At that moment on February 18, 1918, the Berlin Dada movement was launched.
Huelsenbeck continued his speech, which grew more and more vociferous-at-
tacking the Cubists and Futurists, describing the man of the future, the new, brave,
chance-accepting Dada-man. Huelsenbeck concluded with a promise to recite again
from his Phantastische Gebete at the end of the evening. Daubler and Herrman-
Neisse were undecided as to what they should do. But the crowd was demanding that
the readings continue since they wanted to know more about Dada. With much mis-
giving, the two poets walked on the stage and read their compositions.

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116 MEL GORDON

Grosz, who had alreadyworked in cabaret for a number of years, startedto recite
his poetry, which sometimes was little more than rhymed or unrhymed insults-
"You sons-of-bitches, materialists,/bread-eaters, flesh-eaters-vegetarians!!/pro-
fessors, butchers' apprentices, pimps!/-you bums!l" Suddenly Grosz clutched his
groin and began to violently pace back and forth before a recently displayed Ex-
pressionist painting. Then, as Walter Mehring relates, "Cries of 'Shame on you!' ac-
companied the obscene tap-dance of George Grosz, who, pantomimically relieved
himself before Professor Louis Corinth's canvases." Grosz attempted to calm the
ragingaudience with a plea that urine was only a superiorvarnish.
As promised, Huelsenbeck returned to the stage with more Phantastische
Gebete. Although he demanded absolute silence and complete attention, at some
point in his reading, the restless audience began to stand up, either in protest or
confusion. Setting his poems aside, Huelsenbeck lashed out at them, "What are you
really waiting for? The next downfall of Germany?Aren't you satisfied with enough
victims?"The incongruity of Huelsenbeck's nonsense poetry and his appeal to the
audience's patriotic instinctsproduced a deathly silence. Huelsenbeck then, in official
tones, read from an announcement, "Names and orders of the Dada-Central-Com-
mittee: Sit down, Berlin! We declare that everything here in our modern perfor-
mance is shared with our highly-esteemed poet colleagues. And everyone in the
gallery is to be pronounced an honorarymember of Dada!"
Exactly how the audience reacted to Huelsenbeck's seemingly conciliatory
message is not clear. J. B. Neumann maintained in 1950 that the audience completely
wrecked his gallery at the end of the soiree.
Whatever Huelsenbeck's original intentions were-and again judging from the
text, they must have been quite modest-the evening was a fantastic Dada-success.
According to Huelsenbeck:

The next day, the newspapers ran huge headlines, which is unusual
for readings of this kind. Most of the papers were indignant, others
tried to make fun of Dada. A good deal was said about the word
"Dada"; it was called baby talk,jungle noise, parrot chatter. Much
to Daubler's and Herrmann-Neisse's sorrow, a number of critics
earnestly discussed Dada, which forced the two of them to print a
public statement againstit.
(Huelsenbeck, forthcoming)

On April 12, 1918, at the BerlinerSezession, Huelsenbeck with his friends from
the Cafe des Westens-Raoul Hausmann, FranzJung, Gerhard Preiss, and Grosz-
presented the second Dada-soiree. Compared to the February performance,
however, this one was meticulously planned: A large hall a few doors down from the
Graphisches Kabinett on Berlin's main thoroughfare, the Kurfurstendamm,was
rented; detailed announcements were sent to all the papers; and co-signers for
Huelsenbeck's collective manifesto were solicited throughout art circles in Europe.
An off-print of this manifesto, listed in the program as "Dadaism in Life and in Art,"
was distributedto the audience. Forthree Marks,Huelsenbeck offered to sign it.
The evening began with a frenzied attackon Expressionismby Huelsenbeck:

The best and most extraordinaryartistswill be those who every hour

snatch the tatters of their bodies out of the frenzied cataractof life.
... Has Expressionism fulfilled our expectations of such an art,
which should be an expression of our most vital concerns? No! No!
No! Have the Expressionistsfulfilled our expectations of an art that
burns the essence of life into our flesh? No! No! No!...
(Huelsenbeck, Collective Dada Manifesto, 1918)

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 DADA BERLIN 117

Against the Expressionist esthetic, Huelsenbeck placed the Dada-art of the

Bruitist (onomatopoetic), Simultaneous (multiple), and Static (vowel) poem, the
Cubist dance, and the Bruitist music of the Futurists. "The word 'Dada' symbolizes the
most primitive relation to the reality of the environment ... Dada is a state of mind
that can be revealed in any conversation ... to be a Dada means to let oneself to be
thrown by things, to oppose all sedimentation ... To be against this manifesto is to be
Dada."
Huelsenbeck concluded by reading the names of the co-signers of the manifesto,
which included Berlin and Zurich Dadas as well as Italian sympathizers-among them
the Futurist Enrico Prampolini. Yet, in spite of the provocative nature of the manifesto
and Huelsenbeck's aggressive delivery, the members of the audience, although tense,
remained relatively calm. Grosz recited his poems in rapid succession. When Else
Hadwiger, who was scheduled to read Futurist and Dadaist poetry, began to read
some of Marinetti's poetry extolling the virtues of war, to which Huelsenbeck pro-
vided a musical accompaniment on a toy trumpet and rattle, the public's attention
was suddenly shifted away from the stage: In the middle of the hall, a soldier in a
field-grey uniform, falling to the floor, was gripped by a fit of epilepsy. The audience
was in a state of panic. Just then, Hausmann embarked upon his lecture, "The New
Materials in Painting," which attempted to analyze man's "sexopsychic capacity" in
art and the exploration in art of real objects. The combined effect must have been too
great for the already pained spectators:

My text, "The New Materials in Painting," created such a commo-

tion that the management, who was worried about its paintings dis-
played on the walls, switched off the lights in the middle of my
speech, condemning me to darkness and silence.
(Raoul Hausmann, Am Anfang War Dada, 1972)

Although the other participants considered the soiree "a splendid evening, a
Dada-success," and were greatly relieved at the uniformly negative press reviews,
Huelsenbeck, for reasons that are still not clearly established, left Berlin that night and
went into hiding in his native city of Brandenburg.
Within a few weeks, the conspicuous Dadas with their childish mock-
revolutionary names* and bizarre theatrical uniforms-Grosz walked the
Kurfurstendamm dressed as Death-were seen everywhere, shouting slo-
gans and pasting up stickers, such as "Dada kicks you in the behind and you
like it," or "What have the gentlemen done with the stage?" Matinees and
soirees for the spring and summer were planned. One such performance,
advertised in the only number of their official organ, Club Dada, an-
nounced, "A propaganda-evening for the end of May," with a "Si-
multaneous Poem (six participants), Bruitist Music, and Cubist Dances (ten
ladies). Orders and inquiries are to be directed to Richard Huelsenbeck,

By June 1918, the Dada manifestations were reduced to a few matinees

at the only pub that would have them, the Cafe Austria. On June 6th, Johan-

*Richard Huelsenbeck: Weltdada, Meisterdada; Raoul Hausmann: Dadasoph;

George Grosz: B6ff, Dadamarshal,Propagandada;Johannes Baader: Oberdada;
John Heartfield: Monteurdada, Mutt; Walter Mehring: Walt Merin, Pupi-Dada;
GerhardPreiss:Music-Dada;Wieland Herzfeld: Vize. Eventhe unofficial members
took Dada-names-Otto Schmalhausen:Dada-Oz, Dr. Otto Burchard:Finanz-Dada,
and H. H. Stuckenschmidt:Music-DadaII.

George Grosz as the Dada-Death.

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118 MELGORDON

nes Baader,who had already been certified as legally insane by the BerlinPolice De-
partment, performed with Hausmann. Although there are no extant newspaper re-
views, it is unlikely that these matinees were more than readings of lautgedichte and
exchanges of insultswith some beer-guzzling onlookers amidstdisplaysof Dadaistart,
namely abstract drawings and photo-montage, which the Berlin Dadas credit
themselves as originating.
The next recorded Dada performance did not occur until February1919. That
matinee is largely remembered for the mounting antagonism it reflected between
Huelsenbeck and the rest of the Dadas. Clearly, much of the tension was due to the
growing political struggle within the Dada movement. Although the Berlin Dadas
were vehemently opposed to the bourgeois Social Democratic regime of Philipp
Scheidemann and FriedrichEbert,who seized power in November 1918,to forestall a
Communist revolution after the abdication of the Kaiser,their personal support of the
Spartakists (the Communist opposition) ranged from active participation (Grosz,
Heartfield, Herzfeld) to utter ambivalence (Huelsenbeck). In the Januaryand March
reactions, following the abortive Spartakistinsurrection of Rosa Luxenburgand Karl
Liebknecktin December 1918, several of the BerlinDadaswere taken into "protective
custody" and threatened with death by the proto-Nazi Freikorps.Only the interven-
tion of influential intellectuals, like Count HarryKessler,was thought to have saved
their lives.
At the end of April1919,the Dadas felt safe enough to mount an art exhibition of
their newest works.Joined by the newly arrivedRussian,EfimGolyschef, Hausmann,
in Huelsenbeck's absence, returned to one of the old Dada haunts, Neumann's
Graphisches Kabinett. Golyschef, who remained in the Dada movement only a few
months, brought with him many of the ideas of the Russian Futuristmovement he
picked up during the war. An accomplished painter and musician at twenty-two,
Golyschef had developed an atonal twelve-tone scale based on the principles of the
"duration complex" in 1914, independently of Arnold Sch6nberg. To mark the
closing of the Dada art display, which Hausmann claims included the first Assem-
blages-"compositions realized in eccentric materialssuch as jelly boxes, glass, hair,
paper lace"-an elaborate programwas planned for the evening of April30th.
After calling for silence, Hausmannread his newest lautgedichte, the Seelen-Au-
tomobil (Automobile Souls), thundering "with a high and mighty voice BOUMM DE
DE." Heartfield and Grosz performed, and Golyschef played his notorious Antisym-
phony. Hausmannlater recounted:

Golyschef entered with a young woman dressed in white. I can still

see this scene today as if nothing had changed. Witha feeble smile,
Golyschef turned toward the grand piano and, makinga tiny gesture
of an innocent, white angel with his hand, sat down. He said in the
voice of an electronic puppet: "Aperformance of
The Antisymphonyin Three Parts(The CircularGuillotine).
a) The ProvocativeInjection.
b) The Chaotic Oral Cavity.
c) The PliableSuper-FA.
Well, well, Herr Johann Sebastian Bach, your well-tempered trash
will experience the clashing of the dodecahedral Antisymphony!
Out and away with the fine pedantries of the, ach so splendid, es-
tablished-traditions!Dada will triumph in sound as well! Ladiesand
gentlemen, do your rust-encrusted ears resound? Then, let the
musical circular-saw cut them right through! Douche away the
dregs of your voice from the chaotic oral cavities with Golyschef!"
(Hausmann,1972)

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 Then with the assistance of a kitchen-utensil playing orchestra and an imitation
Dalcroze dancer, Golyschef performed his atonal Antisymphony.
Despite Hausmann'sprivate misgivingsover the favorable critical reactions, the
April 30th soiree received, a second, even more grandiose, production was planned
for May 15th at the large Meister-Hall on the Kurfurstendamm.(For a complete
description, see page 125).At this time, Dadaismin Berlinwas at the height of its noto-
riety;young artists,designers, songwriters,musicians,writers,and performersfrom all
over Germany and Central Europestreamed into Berlinto experience the Dada-Re-
bellion first hand-and perhaps to be formally invited into the exclusive Club Dada.
Under the rallying-cry"Dada-Osirisis the answer to death," Alfred Sauermannpre-
sented his own imitative Dada-playsat the Theatre of the Club of the Grotesque: "I
appear before you like the God Phallus.(He, too, had a small head and a long neck.)
Perhaps, he was also an undefeated racehorse. Gentlemen, shall we bet on that?"
Treatisesby famous criticspraisingor denigrating Dadaismappeared in the shuttersof
neighborhood kiosks throughout Berlin. Everynewspaper felt obligated to present
their own theory about the social and esthetic meritsof Dadaism.
At the Dada-matinees and Dada-soirees given at the Meister-Hall,a number of
established acts unfolded: Grosz' and Mehring's Contest Between the Sewing Ma-
chine and Typewriter(See page 130) and their PrivateConversation of Two Senile
Men Behind a Firescreen;GerhardPreiss'Dada-Trott;Hausmann'srecitation of the
Seelen-Automobil and his "sixty-one-step" dance, which he sometimes performed
when the audience became unruly;and, of course, Huelsenbeck's perennial reading
of the Phantastische Gebete. More than twenty years later in America, Grosz
described the natureof these performances:

We held meetings and charged a few Marksadmission but gave in

returnno more than truisms... Our mannerswere downright arro-
gant. We would say, "Youheap of dung down there, yes, you, with
the umbrella, you simple fool." Or, "Hey, you on the right, don't
laugh, you ox." If they answered us, as they naturallydid, we would
say as they do in the army:"Shutyour trapor you'll get kicked in the
butt."
(Grosz,A LittleYesand a Big No, 1946)
Sometimes I'd slap them with my glove and sometimes I'd say, "You
reek with corruption, and now five hundred Marks,please." Later

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120 MELGORDON

the police had to protect us. I was sometimes very witty. "Shut up!"
I'd say, "You kept your mouths shut for four years. Now keep them
shut a little while longer." Sometimes we had hand-to-hand
fighting.
(Grosz, in The New Yorker, 1943)
When we weren't swearing at the public, we were indulging in so-
called "art." That is, we deliberately staged our "artistic" acts. For
instance, Walter Mehring would pound away at his typewriter,
reading aloud the poem he was composing, and Heartfield or
Hausmann or I would come from the backstage and shout: "Stop,
you aren't going to hand out real art to those dumbbells, are you?"

Sometimes these skits were prepared, but by and large they were
improvised. Since we usually did a bit of drinking beforehand, we
were always belligerent. The battles that started behind the scenes
were merely continued in public, that was all. This was startlingly
novel to the people, consequently we were hugely successful. Fads
like ours generally lasted only a few months.
(Grosz, 1946)

Although Dada had clearly caught the public's eye, by June, Baader, Hausmann
and Huelsenbeck switched to literary activities-the publication of their journal Der
Dada, a rag-tag of jumbled woodcuts, drawings, manifestos, lautgedichte, Dada-slo-
gans, photo-montage, faked photographs, and reportage. In the manifesto that ap-
peared in the first issue, "What is Dadaism and What Does It Want in Germany,"
Hausmann and Huelsenbeck called for the establishment of simultaneous poetry "as
the Communist state prayer," "the requisition of churches for the performances of
Bruitism, Simultaneist and Dadaist poems," as well as the organization of 150 circuses
in conjunction with a Dadaist propaganda campaign for the "enlightenment of the
proletariat." Later the Dadas would include in their publications dramatic sketches
that would prefigure the Theatre of the Absurd.
In November 1919, two esthetically-opposed theatres inexplicably opened their
doors to the Dadas. In the basement of Max Reinhardt's newly built Grosse Schau-
spielhaus, Ernst Stern, Reinhardt's chief designer, constructed a space for a cabaret.
Based on Reinhardt's successful, pre-war literary cabaret, the Schall und Rauch (Noise
and Smoke), this second Schall und Rauch soon attracted the attention of
Mehring,
who stood outside its doors and harangued the customers in the name of Dada.
Reinhardt, who happened to arrive at that time, immediately commissioned Mehring
to write a song for the next performance in a week's time. One of the refrains
Mehring submitted to Reinhardt, "There's something about love and something
about Noske (in this chanson)" was unexpectedly well received and soon became one
of the most popularly sung refrains throughout Berlin. (Gustav Noske was the much
maligned Minister of Defense. Although a Socialist, Noske armed the right-wing
Freikorps, who through assassination and terror destroyed the Spartakus infrastruc-
ture.) On November 11th, Mehring was invited back to conduct an entire evening.
Together with his friends from the literary and intellectual establishment who were
sympathetic to Dadaism-Kurt Tucholsky, Klabund, and Joachim Ringelnatz-
Mehring presented his Conference provocative. Harping on the Schall und Rauch's
previous function-it was used to house circus animals for the Zircus Schumann-
Mehring, in the best Dada fashion, castigated all of man's entertainments and higher
enterprises as beastial.
The second theatre that invited the Dadas to perform was the leftist Tribune. An
impressionistic account of one of the Dadas' November productions at the Tribbne
appeared in the newspaper"Vorwarts."

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 DADA BERLIN 121

A patch-work of questions, sounds, words, and gaudy spectacle.

Masterfulstaging from the first roll of a drum forced the audience
into submission . . . After outlining the evening's program, the MC
began the fireworks: "The worse the world, the better our jokes!"
This sentence lays bare the entire Dada-activity.For the bourgeois
culture has overshot its mark.Itsbrittle wheels have skipped off, and
the wagon is overturning . . . The MC proclaimed, "We are not an
art movement, we are a pure movement, movement incarnate ...
Dada is the returnto primitiveinstincts."

The remainder of the review records a recitation of Hausmann's Seelen-Au-

tomobil, a mock Biblicalskit with the frequent backstagecommands, "You shall have
no other Noske beside him!" and an obscene lecture entitled, "ClassicalReferences
to Middle-ClassCookery."
The next matinee at the Tribune on December 7, 1919, is historicallyimportant
due to Piscator'sparticipation.Beginning with the cry, "Don't startthe show until the
money's in the safe!" Piscator created what was later called the first living photo-
montage with one of Huelsenbeck's sketches. In 1928 Grosz wrote, "Do you re-
member, Erwin, how, long before the Russians, you directed the famous Dada
matinee from the top of a tall ladder,while behind you someone howled long-drawn-
out, coarse speeches from the wings into the audience?"
The next week on the 13th, the Dadas decided to virtually repeat the same
program. At this performance, Mehring wanted to include some of Goethe's poetry.
Without announcing the author, Mehring began to recite the "Wanderer's Storm
Song," while the audience roared at what they assumed was another example of Da-
daist nonsense poetry. Butthe Dadasthemselves knew better.

The entire horde of Dadas, running up to the lip of the stage,

shouted, "Stop!" "Enough twaddle!" they boomed. "Walt!" Boff
growled with a fixed monocle, "Walt, you are only throwing...
pearls ... before these pigs!" "Stop!" the Dada-choir roared in
unison. "Get out! Ladiesand gentlemen, we ask you politely: Go to
Hell! If you wish to amuse yourselves, then go to a whorehouse-or
(Huelsenbeck) to a Momas Thann lecture!" And linking arms, the
Dada-choirdescended from the podium to do battle with the raging
spectators.
(Walter Mehring, Dada Berlin, 1959)

Between these two December matinees at the Tribune, the Berlin Dadas
mounted another production in connection with the Schall und Rauch. Advertised as
an evening of "dancing, recitations,sketches, cartoons, and a political puppet show,"
Rudolf Kurtzand Heinz Herald,the director and dramaturgof the Schall und Rauch,
hoped that a combination of high-quality cabaret entertainment and fashionable-
Dada-political satirewould generate an immense amount of publicity.
In the first partof the evening, Gustavvon Wangenheim read his poetry, "Pierrot
Songs," Lala Hedermenger danced to the music of Robert Forster-Larrinaga,and
Klabundread some of his grotesque stories. Then, an animated film cartoon, drawn in
thick satiricallines by WalterTrier,was projected. Accompanied by the cabaret tunes
of Friederich Hollaender, the composer of many of Marlene Dietrich's Berlin songs,
the film depicted "a day in the life of the Reich's President" Ebert.During the next
act, a familiarsentimental favorite, a "Prince-and-Councilor"sketch, Mehring started
a disturbance. In the awkwardsilence that followed the outburst, Gertaud Eysoldtde-

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 A George Groszsketch
of the marionettes
from Simply Classical!

livered her comic speeches. She was followed by Paul Graetz and Blandine
Hollaender, two of the most popular cabaret singers in Berlin. Then came the
promised highlight of the evening, Mehring's political puppet play, "Simply
Classical-An Orestia with a Happy Ending."
Using two-foot marionettes designed by Grosz and executed by Heartfield and
Waldemar Hecker, the Mehring play both satirized the economic, political, and
military events that led to the founding of the year-old Weimar Republic; and
Reinhardt's 1919 production of the Orestia, which was then playing at the Grosses
Schauspielhaus-("Aeschylus above, Aristophanes below" wrote a critic for the
Vossische Zeitung.). It was more concerned with current politics than any re-working
of classical mythology. Except for a few Attic props, the marionettes were dressed in
contemporary costume and given the facial and body characteristics of Grosz'
Weimar types. Judging from the descriptions of the characters in the play, Grosz'
vision could not have been very different from Mehring's: Agamemnon/in the uni-
form of a Junker, "a commanding general in his best years"; Clytemnestra/in the
dress of a cabaret performer, "in her change in life"; Aegisthus/Ebert, "a democratic
president"; Orestes, "an officer in the Attic Freikorps"; a Bourgeois Gentlemen;
Electra, "who becomes transformed into a Salvation Army girl"; a Watchman; and
"Nature Boy."
Divided into three parts, the War, "The Dawn of Democracy," and "The Classical
Absconding of Funds"-the last about the Kaiser's flight to Holland-the puppet play
contained many technical and thematic innovations that would later appear as stock
devices in the theatres of Piscator and Brecht. An alienating Gramophone/Greek
chorus interrupted the action of the play with political songs like "The Oratory of
War, Peace, and Inflation." There were anti-military and anti-American themes-
Electra as a Salvation Army worker. Film was incorporated in the staging-a movie
entitled "Henny Pythia," parodied the film star, Henny Porten: "I am the Duse/
Without the Geschmuse (sugar-coating)."
The evening ended with the Dadas, who were genuinely displeased with Kurtz'
direction, attacking the spectators, among whom was Reinhardt. Huelsenbeck
screamed himself hoarse. "Down with Reinhardtism!" The numerous newspaper
critics wrote about the poor acoustics and faulty ventilation.
The final Dada performances were given by Huelsenbeck, Hausmann, and Baader
on their Dadatour of Dresden (See page 128), Leipzig (February 24, 1920), Teplice-
Schonau in Czechoslovakia (February 26), Prague (March 1 and 2), and Karlsbad
(March 5). Largely due to an effective public relations campaign of promoters, local
Dadas, and copy-hungry newspapers, the Berlin Dada performances attracted
enormous and unwieldly crowds. In Leipzig, when a policeman mounted the stage in

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 DADA BERLIN 123

order to calm the more than two thousand spectators, he was mistaken for a Dada and
showered with torrents of rotten eggs and potatoes. Huelsenbeck gives us an in-
teresting description of these performances:

To sum up our reading circuit in a single sentence: we annoyed and

bewildered our audiences. The one thing in common to all of our
performances was that we never knew in advance what we were
going to say. I usually read the Phantastische Gebete and
Hausmann,as far as I can remember alwayshad his sound poems on
hand. Butthis materialnaturallycouldn't fill out an evening. So from
the very start,we had to make the audience realize that it shouldn't
expect very much ... Before the performance, I would step over to
the edge of the podium and call out: "Ladiesand gentlemen ... if
you think that we have come here to sing or recite something, then
you are the victimsof an unfortunateerror. It would have been bet-
ter had you gone to the nearest motion picture theatre instead..."
People called out that they wanted to see Dada. "Dadais nothing," I
said. "We ourselves don't know what Dada is..." Someone would
call out "get the police." "Ladiesand gentlemen," I said, "not even
the police can change the fact that we do not intend to offer you
any entertainment such as you generally get in the movies or in the
theatre."
(Huelsenbeck, forthcoming)

Curiously the programs distributed on the Dadatour make the Dadas' perfor-
mances appear slightly more literary and organized than either the Dadas themselves
or the newspaper reviews record. For instance, the program issued for the March 1st
performance at the Produce Exchange in Prague reads:

1. Huelsenbeck: Introduction.
2. Hausmann/Baader:Simultaneouslectures on the knife.
3. Hausmann:Foxty-one-step(Dada-trott).
4. Baader:"My LastFuneral."
5. Huelsenbeck/Baader/Hausmann:Simultaneouspoems.
6. Hausmann:"ClassicalReferencesto Middle-ClassCookery."
7. Huelsenbeck:"PhantischesGebete."
8. Huelsenbeck/Baader/Hausmann:"The Pig Bladderas Anchor."
9. BruitistFinalPromenade.

RichardHuelsenbeck and Raoul Haus-

mann on their Dadatourin Prague.

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124 MELGORDON

Yet, even in this performance, chance, which played such an important part in
the Berlin Dada activities,would determine the nature and organization of the con-
cert: Baader,at the last minute, had fled Prague,taking half the performance scripts
with him.
At the last official Dada gathering in Berlin,the FirstInternationalDada-Messe at
the BurchardGalleryin June 1920,the Berlin Dadas exhibited Dada art from all over
the world, includingtheir own photo-montage and puppets, some of which they used
in their productions. However, we have no records of any performance during the
exhibition.
By the end of 1920, the Berlin Dadas had gone their separate ways. Grosz and
Heartfieldbegan to work in proletariantheatre with HermannSchuller and Piscator.
Hausmannjoined the Hanover Dada, KurtSchwitters(who had been rejected by the
Berlin Dadas in 1918)to perform Merz/Antidada soirees in many of the same places
he had taken the Dadatour. Mehring returned to the Berlin literarycabaret, whose
style and content the Dadashad alreadytransformed.
Hannah Hoch at the First
International Dada-Messe.

SELECTED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boyer, RichardO. "Profiles,Artist."in The New Yorker:Nov. 27, 1943; Dec. 4, 1943; Dec. 11,
1943.
Budzinski,Klaus.Die Muse mitScharferZunge. Munich, 1961.
Deshong III, A.W. Theatrical Designs of George Grosz. (unpublished dissertation, Yale
University,1972).
Grossman,Manuel L.Dada: Paradox,Mystification,and Ambiguityin EuropeanLiterature.New
York,1971.
Grosz,George. A LittleYesand a BigNo. New York,1946.
Hausmann,Raoul.CourrierDada. Paris,1958.
Hausmann,Raoul.Am AnfangWarDada.Steinbach/Giessen,1970.
Hosch,Rudolf.Kabarettvon Gestern.Berlin,1967.
Huelsenbeck,Richard.Memoirsof a Dada Drummer.New York,forthcoming.(VikingPress).
Hulsenbeck,Richard,editor. DadaAlmanach.New York,1966(second edition).
Jaguer,Edouard.Golyschef.Milan,1970.
Lewis,Beth Irwin.George Crosz: Artand Politicsin the WeimarRepublic. Madison, Wisconsin,
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Lippard,LucyR.,editor. DadasOn Art. EnglewoodCliffs,N.J.,1971.
Mehring,Walter.BerlinDada. Zurich,1959.
Motherwell,Robert,editor. TheDadaPaintersand Poets. New York,1951.
Richter,Hans.Dada:Artand Anti-Art.New York-Toronto,1965.
The author would like to thankJohn Houchin, IngaKohwaian,JamesF. Brown,Peter Grosz,and
WalterMehringfor their assistance.

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