Reich Chancellor Pop

Musical revue based on a text by Heiner Müller

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Description

The music magazine "Reich Chancellor Pop" deals with playwright Heiner Müller's literary fragments Germania Magna 4 and Quadriga Germania - a Giant Woman.

The first part shows a montage accompanied by electro-techno sound, in which the grotesque representation of Adolf Hitler as flying acrobat, contrasted with Erich Ohser ("e.o.plauen")'s Father and Son cartoons, stands out in particular.

In the second part, Kluge reads passages from Müller's literary fragments, while the lines also appear as text-image on screen. This aesthetic decision causes the "viewer's inner reading voice to overlay with the 'external' voice of the speaker," (Teubener, Welt weiter Widerstand, p. 101).

In the third part, Kluge talks to Müller about his text Quadriga Germania - a Giant Woman, its importance for Müller's work and the difficulty to put the material on stage – its production only seems realistic in a circus.

The fourth part continues with the montage. It shows recordings of Hitler as well as official assemblies and ceremonies during national socialism in Germany, which Kluge alters with quick cuts and oscillating colorful geometrical patterns. These images are accompanied by passages from Müller's text in Kluge's text-image representation, without a reader's voice-over. The music alternates between brass music, techno, rock and jazz.