figuration of therevolutionary workingclass.Withemotionequated withmo-
tion, physicalmovementcameto stand in for politicalmovementingeneral.
Choreographies oftenalluded to thehardships of industriallabor,withsome
even emulatingthe repetitive work on theconveyor belt andthe reduction of
humanbeings tomere automatons.Rhythm, tempo, andrepetitio nnot only re-
vealed theharmfuleffectsofalienated laboronthe working bodybut also
modeledsimple formsofcollectiveresistance. AccordingtoMartin Gleisner,
thesemasschoreographieswere“best suited to convey mass andcommunity
feelings through important basicconstellations:opposition andunification, di-
vision and unity,weaknessandstrength.”¹⁷Fromtheparticipants’perspective,
the transitionfromSprechchortoBewegungschorcouldbe challenging, he con-
ceded,andasuccessful contributiontothis“nonindividual, supraindividual
theater”required specialized traininginactingand dancingthatcouldnot
be made availableto everyone.¹⁸
Several manuals written for directors and conductors addressed the difficul-
ties of stagingmass spectacles without compromising artistic quality.Time and
again theirauthors confirmed emotions as the driving forcebehind the desired
trajectory from theatrical performance to political action. The prolific Bruno
Schönlank (1891–1965), theauthor of manySprechchorplays,described the per-
formers as stand-ins for theaudience, functioning as“herald of their longings,
their desire for battle,but alsotheir desperation.”¹⁹Similarly, Adolf Johannesson
emphasized the power of embodied emotions in imaginingafuture socialist so-
ciety.Modeled on the ancient Greek drama asamicrocosm ofAthenian democ-
racy,the new massperformances in his view reconciled earlier conceptions of
the people as the original folk with Marxist notions of the workingclass as
the universal class.“Just as the proletariat took the first steptoward the creation
of atrue folk community,”he explained,“it also created the first community of
experience (Erlebnisgemeinschaft)byappearingonthe stage[...]and giving ex-
pression to its feelingsand longings.”²⁰
The above-mentionedOtto Zimmermann went one step further by declaring
theaudience–and, by implication, the conditions ofreception–as the primary
Martin Gleisner,“Der Bewegungschor,”Kulturwille7.1(1930): 9–10.
Martin Gleisner,“DasZusammenwirken derKünsteinder Festgestaltung,”Sozialistische Bil-
dung2(1929):25.
Bruno Schönlank,Der Moloch(Leipzig: Arbeiter-Theaterverlag A.Jahn, 1930), n. p.
Adolf Johannesson,LeitfadenfürSprechchöre,third ed. (Berlin: Arbeiterjugend-Verlag, 1929),
- It would be interesting to comparetheseguidelines for socialist choral directors with one from
the Nazi erasuch as RichardNoethlichs’sDer Sprechchor.Eine Anleitungfürden Chorführer
(1934).
232 Chapter 12