Working with Christoph Schlingensief when you’re an extreme rightist music producer?
Can it be done? Yes, it can be done!
In 2001, Christoph was looking for neo-Nazis willing to renounce their affiliations for his
production of Hamlet at the Zurich Schauspielhaus. The actor Peter Kern, whom I knew
from Düsseldorf and who was a member of the Hamlet cast, invited me to Zurich and introduced me to Christoph. Christoph persuaded me and half a dozen of my right-wing
buddies to participate in the theater project. The rehearsals at the Schauspielhaus and the actions held in town were enormously taxing. In the beginning, both sides had their ongoing doubts. Christoph asked himself: Are they really willing to get out, or are they just trying to ride my coattails to fame? And we were asking ourselves: Is Christoph really serious about this, or is he only showing us off to garner even more publicity? He was serious. On the other hand, we actually just wanted to provoke the leftist culturati.
Opening night was coming closer and closer, and the nervousness mounted. Christoph’s
inimitable style, his constant desire to find a way to come together, the nightly discussions, the rehearsals to the point of exhaustion, and last but not least, his unshakeable trust in my people and myself were the crucial factor that prevented the situation from escalating. And it engendered the ever-growing desire in us to leave the right-wing scene behind. On the one hand, there was Christoph, a strong personality who allowed people to see his weaknesses; on the other hand, was us right-wingers—weak personalities pretending to be strong.
At some point, we had come to an irreversible decision: we would get out.
Christoph works!
He quite personally paved a way for me to return to the “center of life.” Without him, I might still be the same producer of stiflingly stupid and, most importantly, xenophobic music even today. It is only because of the push Christoph gave me that I am now married to an Arab woman and we have a little son.
My other right-wing Hamlet comrades-in-arms all got out as well. One example I might
mention is my friend Jan Zobel, who is now married, has a child, and works a good job for an international company.
I am grateful to Christoph; he was my star in dark times, showing my buddies and me the way to a new life.
Torsten Lemmer for Christoph Schlingensief. From the book accompanying the German Pavilion 2011, Sternberg Press (ISBN 978-1-934105-42-9).
