Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer (Untergang des Egoisten Johann Fatzer)

"I’m no longer / Making war, I’m leaving /Now straight for home / I shit / On world order. I am / Lost."

Fatzer deserts from the army along with three comrades in the First World War. They go into hiding in a little room belonging to the first soldier’s wife in Mülheim an der Ruhr. They want to escape the war, fight against it and initiate an uprising. But the anticipated revolution does not take place. The deserters become radicalised and turn against each other: they are no longer a part of society.

In his commentary on Fatzer, Brecht noted that this is the object of his "paralysing story" as much as "the destruction of views through relations". The political, psychological and ideological energies that Brecht preserved in his 500-page fragment have a tremendous impact. To unleash them and make them palpable once again is the task facing Tom Kühnel and Jürgen Kuttner in their production of this "text of the century," in Heiner Müller’s words.

An adaptation by Tom Kühnel and Jürgen Kuttner