Rolf hochhuth biography of barack
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Rolf Hochhuth
German author and playwright (1931–2020)
Rolf Hochhuth (German:[ʁɔlfˈhoːxˌhuːt]ⓘ; 1 April 1931 – 13 May 2020)[1] was a German author and playwright, best known for his 1963 drama The Deputy, which insinuates Pope Pius XII's indifference to Hitler's extermination of the Jews, and he remained a controversial figure both for his plays and other public comments and for his 2005 defense of British Holocaust denierDavid Irving.
Life and career
[edit]Youth
[edit]Hochhuth was born in Eschwege, and was descended from a Protestant Hessian middle class family. His father was the owner of a shoe‐factory, which became bankrupt in the Depression.[2] During World War II, he was a member of the Deutsches Jungvolk, a junior subdivision of the Hitler Youth; membership in the group had become legally compulsory in 1939.[3] In 1948 he did an apprenticeship as a bookseller. Between 1950 and 1955 he worked in bookshops in Marburg, Ka
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Scandalous Playwright Makes History
Dubbed "the Pinscher" for his bite, Hochhuth acquired international renown in 1963 with his controversial play "The Deputy," in which he portrayed Pope Pius XII as an opportunist and a weakling for failing to condemn the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II. Since then, Hochhuth has consistently used the stage to ask questions about the moral responsibilities of movers and shakers in politics and businesses.
Born on April 1, 1931 in the town of Eschwege in Hesse, Hochhuth grew up after the rise to power of the Nazis and witnessed the persecution of the Jews and the consequences of war. At the age of 17, Hochhuth quit school to pursue his dream profession and become a writer.
"For me -- the former squirt in Hitler's youth group, the son-in-law of one of the people Hitler had beheaded, having seen the deportation of the Jews at age 10 -- for me, discussion of Hitler is at the heart of what I wrote and write," said Hochhuth in a 1976 in
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Why the 1963 play 'The Deputy' was so explosive
Born on April 1, 1931, Rolf Hochhuth had just turned 14 when the Americans invaded his hometown of Eschwege. It was a significant experience for the boy, who would later deal with National Socialism in his works.
In the 1960s, Hochhuth became one of Germany's main representatives of so-called documentary theater — plays which combined facts from extensive research with fictional elements.
He was only 26 when he wrote the play that would man him famous: The Deputy, A Christian Tragedy. The publishing house, however, kept the play on hold for years before avant-garde theater director Erwin Piscator decided to stage it. It premiered on the Freie Volksbühne stage in West Berlin in February 1963, making the author world-famous.
In The Deputy, Hochhuth looks into the inaction of the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII, during the Holocaust. "A diplomat has to see and remain silent," says the character of Pope Pius XII,