FRAU PUSCHI: That was Goliath.
KASPER: Then my plan is done. — You just have to borrow a cart.
FRAU PUSCHI: But why do I need a cart?
KASPER: I’ll tell you why. — When I break all of Herr Maulschmidt’s ribs, he’ll no longer be able to walk.
FRAU PUSCHI: He probably won’t.
KASPER: So then! We’ll just drive him around in the cart. And now I’ll tell you where. We’ll drive him to the market, right by the statue of Herr Kewlies, the guy who slayed the lions. We’ll lean him up against it, and when enough people have gathered around, you’ll walk around with a cup and I’ll sing the whole story, just as it happened. Listen up, I’ve even written the song.
Half-sung, half-spoken in the style of street song:
Because Puschi had commanded
That he go and fetch a fish
At the market Kasper landed
A gloomy morning full of mist.
Knocking.
FRAU PUSCHI: Who is it?
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: I’m only here to give Kasper an envelope.
KASPER: Blast! Herr Maulschmidt again!
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: Good day, Kasper. I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. I’m also glad to be able to deliver this.
KASPER: An envelope?
FRAU PUSCHI: An envelope?
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: And what’s inside.
FRAU PUSCHI: A thousand marks?
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: Your fee from the radio station.
KASPER: The radio station?! The one that nearly had me killed?
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: Well, in doing so, we also got what we wanted.
KASPER: What’s that supposed to mean?
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: It means that you spoke on the radio, even if you didn’t know it.
KASPER: Well, that must have been in my sleep.
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: Not in your sleep, but in your bed.
FRAU PUSCHI: In bed?
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: He who laughs last, laughs loudest. We at the radio station are even cleverer than you. While you were out in the city perpetrating your scandalous deeds, we secretly installed a microphone in your room, under your bed, and now we have everything you said, on a record, and I just happened to bring one along for you. Listen to this:
The text above begins to play from the record, but in a somewhat distorted tone.
The record: … the guy who slayed the lions. We’ll lean him up against it, and when enough people have gathered around, you’ll walk around with a cup and I’ll sing the whole story, just as it happened. Listen up, I’ve even written the song.
Because Puschi had commanded
That he go and fetch a fish
At the market Kasper landed
A gloomy morning full of mist.
KASPER: I’ve just heard for the first time what radio is.
FRAU PUSCHI: And I’ve seen for the first time what a thousand marks looks like.
KASPER AND FRAU PUSCHI: And we thank you very much, Herr Maulschmidt.
The ringing of bells, as above.
HERR MAULSCHMIDT: The honor is mine! And goodbye to you both! I must hurry as we’re making a broadcast from Pumpernickel. This has been one unforgettable day.
“Radau um Kasperl,” GS, 4.2, 674–95, with additional notes in GS, 7.2, 831–6. Translated by Jonathan Lutes.
Broadcast on Southwest German Radio, Frankfurt, on March 10, 1932, and on Western German Radio, Cologne, on September 9, 1932.
The Frankfurt broadcast was announced in the Südwestdeutsche Rundfunk-Zeitung for March 10, 1932, from 7:45–8:45 pm; it was advertised as “Much Ado About Kasper, A Radio Play for Children by Walter Benjamin.” The listing notes that the broadcast would be directed by Benjamin. It also makes a request: “As the title implies, Kasper’s experiences in this play are also connected with Radau [racket, row, hubbub, din]. Children are asked to guess what the noises mean, and to share their opinions with the radio station.”3
The Cologne broadcast on September 9, 1932, from 4:20–5:00 pm, was scheduled as part of the station’s youth radio programming and was directed by Carl Heil.
Much Ado About Kasper is the only broadcast of Benjamin’s for which an audio-recording exists, albeit a partial one. Benjamin’s voice cannot be heard. The audio fragment is most likely from the production in Cologne.
In a letter to Scholem dated February 28, 1933, Benjamin gave Much Ado About Kasper an affirmative spin rare for his comments about his radio works. Speaking of his “works for radio” generally, he notes that even he hasn’t “been successful in collecting them all. I am speaking of the radio plays, not the series of countless talks, which [will] now come to an end, unfortunately, and are of no interest except in economic terms, but that is now a thing of the past. Moreover, most of these radio plays were written together with others. Notable from a technical point of view perhaps is a piece for children, which was broadcast last year in Frankfurt and Cologne; I may be able to secure you a copy at some point. It’s called ‘Radau um Kasperl.’”4
1 The name Maulschmidt, when broken down into its components in German, can be understood literally as Maul, “snout,” “mug,” or “muzzle,” and Schmidt, or the common “smith.” Together they create a satirical proper name that is not common in German. An English equivalent might be something like: mouth-smith, mug-maker, or snout-forger.
2 The German for radio and broadcasting, Rundfunk, is made up of the words rund, which means round, and Funke., spark. The English “radio” carries a similar connotation of dissemination outward, as in radiality. Kasper’s humor depends on the embedded German connotation of radiating fire or disseminating sparks, which cannot be conveyed in the English.
3 In addition to the typescript of the play, the Benjamin archive includes a text entitled “Kasper and the Radio: A Story with Noise” [Kasper] und der Rundfunk: Eine Geschichte mit Lärm], which the GS editors tentatively conclude was related to the Frankfurt broadcast and the above request for the children to guess what the sounds were. The text of “Kasper and the Radio” (reproduced in GS, 7.2, 832–6), is something like an outline or summary version of Much Ado About Kasper. It describes the scenes of the play and the interrupting noises, and is divided into divided into six “hubbubs” [Radau]. The text begins with an introduction: “The following draft outlines a storyline containing a series of episodes in a fixed framework. The basis of these episodes is a variety of characteristic types of sounds punctuated here and there with hints and words. In a short introduction the speaker indicates the gist of the following radio play to his listeners, placing before them the task of envisioning the episodes, which are not fully fleshed out. The listeners are then asked to assess the respective sounds according to their imagination and wishes, and to send their solutions to the radio station for a potential prize” (GS, 7.2, 832–3). This short summary version, in other words, emphasizes the acoustic elements and sound-play of the play.
4 Benjamin, The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 403–4.
CHAPTER 31. The Cold Heart
A Radio Play Adapted from Wilhelm Hauff’s Fairy Tale1
By Walter Benjamin and Ernst Schoen2
Dramatis personae
RADIO ANNOUNCER