Chapter 12
SocialDemocracy and thePerformanceof
Community
Alone we arenothing.
Together we areeverything.
Youand youand you,
belongtoustoo.
Take this hand,you’re alsoaprole (Prolet).
Wearethe stormtroops
conqueringtheworld,
We!We! We!R. Barthel,“We!”Social and political movements are propelled forward by the shared desire of
their membersto say“we,”“us,”and“our.”¹Shouted in anger,uttered with
pride, and whispered in fear,the first-person pluralgave form and function to
atheatricalgenre or,rather,event uniquetothe socialist lifeworld of the
1920sand early1930s, theSprechchor,with the term usually translated as speak-
ing chorus, choral play, or choric drama.The pronouncement of“we”by choral
players speakingand moving in unison created an emotional community
through highlyritualizedperformances ofGemeinschaft(community) and estab-
lished the emotional regimes necessary for performers as well asaudiences to
proudlyidentify as“proletarian.”TheSprechchorbecame an importantvehicle
especiallyinSocial Democratic culturalorganizations for developingasocialist
alternative both to thevölkischversion of community instrumentalized by the
NSDAP and to the vanguard model of the party promoted by theKPDand its al-
lied organizations.²Within these parameters,theSprechchormovement allowed
socialist activist writers,actors,dancers,musicians, and composers to respond
to new experiments in modern theater and dance, introduce mass bodies as
dramatis personae,and, forabrief moment duringthe interwaryears, imagine
the arrival of the revolutionary workingclass–if onlyinperformative terms.
More problematically, theSprechchoroffers the strongest evidence for the con-
R. Barthel,“Wi r!,”Kampflieder,BlattNr.1(1931), Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Kinder-
freunde, Archief Hendrik de Man, 112, International InstituteofSocial History Amsterdam (IISH).
Forarecent reassessment of the discourse of community,see RobertoEsposito,Communitas:
TheOrigin and Destiny of Community,trans. TimothyCampbell(Stanford: StanfordUniversity
Press,2009).
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110550863-016