In those days there was a fine line between being considered a sorcerer or a scholar. The sorcerer was abhorred for being in league with the devil, while the scholar was revered as a higher being; this later became of great importance for Goethe’s Faust. The puppet play conveyed the same message in its own way: even the least sophisticated spectators could recognize what an unusual man this Faust was when they were presented with Hanswurst as a foil, who also had a pact with the devil; he remains as silly and foolish as before yet eventually manages to break loose from the devil.8 The best passage in the puppet play is at the end of Faust’s life, when the poor, haunted Faust meets the dull, boring Hanswurst. The devil has long since lost interest in Hanswurst, but plans to fetch Faust in two hours. Let me read it to you:
FAUST: Nowhere do I find rest and repose, everywhere it follows me, the vision of hell. Oh why was I not steadfast in my scheme, why did I let myself be swayed? The evil spirit knew to grasp me at my weakest point; I have irrevocably slid into hell. Even Mephistopheles has abandoned me, just now at my unhappiest hour, when I am most in need of diversion. Mephistopheles, Mephistopheles, where are you?
Mephistopheles appears as the devil.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Faust, how do you like me now?
FAUST: What’s gotten into you? Have you forgotten that you are obliged to appear to me in human form?
MEPHISTOPHELES: No, not anymore, because your time has expired. Three more hours and then you’re mine.
FAUST: Eh? What is that you say, Mephistopheles? My time has expired? You must be lying. Only twelve years have elapsed. Therefore twelve years remain that you must serve me.
MEPHISTOPHELES: I’ve served you for twenty-four years.
FAUST: But how is that possible? You changed the calendar?
MEPHISTOPHELES: No, that I can’t do. But listen to me carefully. You are demanding twelve more years.
FAUST: Indeed I am — our contract says four-and-twenty years.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Indeed it does, but we didn’t account for me serving you day and night. And you harried me day and night, so, add on the nights and you’ll see that our contract is coming to an end.
FAUST: Father of all lies! You’ve betrayed me.
MEPHISTOPHELES: No, you have betrayed yourself.
FAUST: Let me live just one more year.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Not even a day.
FAUST: Just one more month.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Not an hour longer.
FAUST: Just one more day, so I can take leave of my good friends.9
But Mephistopheles has nothing more to say on the matter. He has served long enough: “We meet again at twelve o’clock.” And with these words he takes leave of Faust.
You can imagine the excitement and suspense when the audience suddenly sees Hanswurst enter the puppet stage, slow and steady as a night watchman, leisurely calling out the top of each hour. Three times.
“Listen all and count alike, now the clock doth ten times strike,” and so on: the old German night watchman song.
Thus Faust has two more hours to live, two hours until twelve. In his final quarter of an hour he meets Hanswurst. So that, for all his mistakes, we don’t feel sorry for Faust when the devil finally comes for him, and so that we may palpably feel his utter desperation, the writer of the old puppet play has Faust try to save himself by means of a pathetic scam, which fails. Let’s hear how:
Hanswurst catches sight of Faust and says: “Well, good evening, my dear Sir Faust, good evening. Still out on the street?”
FAUST: Why yes, my servant, I haven’t a moment’s peace, on the street or at home.
HANSWURST: And rightly so. You see, I’m having a rough go of it myself at the moment — and you still owe me last month’s pay. Be so kind as to give it to me now — I really need it.
FAUST: Alas, my servant, I have nothing — the devil has made me so poor, I don’t even own myself anymore. (Aside.) I must try to use this fool to wrest myself free from the devil. (To outwit Hanswurst.) Yes, my dear servant, although I have no money, I’d hate to leave this world without first paying you. Here’s what I propose: take off your clothes and put on mine. That way you get your payment and I lose my debt.
HANSWURST (shaking his head): Oh no, then the devil would be likely to nab the wrong guy. No, before any great mistake occurs, I’d prefer just to forget the money. And in exchange, you can do me a favor.
FAUST: Gladly, what is it?
HANSWURST: Say hello to my grandmother. She’s in hell number eleven, just to the right when you walk in.
Hanswurst hurries off. We hear him singing from behind the stage:
Listen all and count alike,
now the clock doth twelve times strike.
Guard the fire and guard the coal
The devil comes for Dr. Faust’s soul.10
The clock strikes twelve, and with thunder, brimstone, and lightning, an entire company of devils emerges from hell to fetch Faust.
Goethe saw this puppet play as a young boy. He began composing Faust before he was thirty years old, and he was eighty when he finished writing it. His Faust similarly made a pact with the devil, and the devil also comes to fetch him at the end. But in the 250 years between the appearance of the first Faust book and the completion of Goethe’s Faust, mankind had changed. More and more, it was understood that what had previously drawn people to magic was often not greed, depravity, or sloth, but rather thirst for knowledge and elevation of mind. Goethe demonstrated this in his Faust, forcing the devil to retreat at last before a legion of angels filling the entire stage.
“Dr. Faust,” GS, 7.1, 180–8. Translated by Jonathan Lutes.
Broadcast on Radio Berlin on January 30, 1931, and on Southwest German Radio, Frankfurt on March 28, 1931. The Funkstunde announced the Berlin broadcast for January 30, 1931 from 5:30–5:50 pm. In Frankfurt, the Südwestdeutsche Rundfunk-Zeitung advertised it for March 28, 1931, from 3:20–3:50 pm, under a variant title: “Youth Hour: ‘Der Zauberkünstler Dr. Faust’ [The Conjurer Dr. Faust] by Walter Benjamin, Berlin (for children ten years old and above).”
1 Friedrich Neubauer was the author of the history textbook, Lehrbuch der Geschichte für höhere Lehranstalten [History Textbook for Higher Learning], (Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1897).
2 The first “Faust Book,” Historia von D. Johann Fausten, was compiled anonymously and published in 1587 in Frankfurt by Johann Spieß. Many subsequent retellings were to follow. The date of 1599 suggests the Hamburg edition by Georg Rudolf Widmann.
3 For a similar passage, see Das Volksbuch vom Doktor Faust. Nach der ersten Ausgabe, 1587 [The first Faust Book, based on the edition of 1587], ed. Robert Petsch (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1911), 144–5.