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Rolf Hochhuth. Wessis in Weimar: Szenen aus einem besetzten Land. Berlin. Volk & Welt. 1993. 260 pages. DM 24.80.
Nine discontinuous scenic fantasies with a semihistorical prologue exposing forms of West German legalized abuse of former East German citizens are ample witness to the tenor of Rolf Hochhuth's ethical commitment if not to his refined esthetics. Inevitably, his play, one of the first large-scale responses to the downside of reunification, suffers from its exuberant catalogue of economic injustices at the hand of the Treuhandanstalt (the play's principal villain), but also through its author's delusion that he is following in Schiller's footsteps.
Wasting no time, Hochhuth begins with a Marquis Posa-style confrontation with Detlev Rohwedder, in which...