GA 43

Stage adaptations II: The Oberufer Christmas Plays

Bühnenbearbeitungen II: Die Oberuferer Weihnachtspiele

This volume contains the texts of the Oberufer Christmas Plays. The folk plays were subject to numerous changes over the course of time. Karl Julius Schröer reproduced the traditional plays in his edition Deutsche Weihnachtspiele aus Ungern (Vienna 1858; 2nd ed. 1862) in New High German, as he had found them in the surviving manuscripts and as they had been performed in Oberufer. From 1910 onwards the plays were performed under Rudolf Steiner, from 1915 onwards in the Goetheanum carpenter's workshop; in the process they underwent many linguistic, textual and dramaturgical changes and additions. Steiner was encouraged several times to reprint the Christmas plays, but it was not until 1938 that Marie Steiner published the plays, in a dialect version that goes back to Steiner's suggestions. In order to make Steiner's editing and contribution recognisable, the Schröer text with Steiner's changes is reproduced in the edition presented here. Two of Rudolf Steiner's essays from December 1922, which have already been printed in other volumes, have also been included in this volume.

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner, Anne Weise (Hrsg.): Bühnenbearbeitungen II: Die Oberuferer Weihnachtspiele, GA 43 (in preparation), ISBN 978-3-7274-0430-6