Source: Reservix
Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti - Volksstück von Bertolt Brecht
4/22/2026
/ 8:00 PM
Above or below: that is a question of perspective.
For the playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
not least a question of class perspective. In his
folk play HERR PUNTILA UND SEIN KNECHT
MATTI, he rather willfully tips the power relations.
As dramatic fuel, he uses alcohol, which he administers
to his hero in a consciousness-damaging concentration.
This Puntila needs much of everything: besides plenty
of liquids, also many cows, many brides, many workers,
many lands. And all must be at his service.
He bullies the chauffeur Matti according to all the
rules of the art. He pairs his daughter Eva with an influential
diplomat – only to send the "well-dressed locust"
out the door at the last minute, filled with punch.
Unions are a red rag to him; he prefers to bring
temporary workers into the house. And he bends the law
in such a way that it doesn’t get in his way. Not a
word has been spoken in this play, and the judge is
already drunk under the table. With his staff, Puntila
drinks himself into an ever-new humanity. Hoping that in the end,
there will be no gap anymore between black and red,
rich and poor, big and small. Yet the intoxication of equality
vanishes as quickly as it was created. The capitalist logic
reveals itself all the more powerfully the morning after.
The friendship between master and servant, as the 1940
play created in exile shows, is only possible in a state
of artificial consciousness impairment.