The Investigation (play)
| The Investigation: Oratorio in 11 Cantos | |
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The Investigation at Staatstheater Nürnberg (2009). Photo by Marion Bührle
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| Written by | Peter Weiss |
| Characters | Judge Prosecuting Attorney Counsel for the Defense Witnesses, numbered 1–9 Adjutant Mulka Boger Dr. Capesius Dr. Frank Dr. Schatz Dr. Lucas Kaduk Hofman Medical Orderly Klehr Scherpe Hantl S. S. Corporal Stark Baretzki Schlage Bischof Broad Breitweiser Bednarek |
| Date premiered | October 19, 1965 |
| Place premiered | Simultaneously at 15 theatres (full-scale theatre productions: West Berlin, Cologne, Essen, Munich, , play readings: East Berlin, Cottbus, Dresden, Gera, Leuna, London, Meiningen, Neustrelitz, Potsdam and Weimar) |
| Original language | German |
| Subject | Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials (1963–65) |
| Setting | Courtroom |
The Investigation is a play by Peter Weiss written in 1965 which depicts the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963–1965. It premiered on October 19, 1965 on stages in fourteen West and East German cities and at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. It carries the subtitle "Oratorio in 11 Cantos". Weiss was an observer at the trials and developed the play partially from the reports of Bernd Naumann.
The Investigation was originally supposed to be part of a larger "World-Theater Project" which was to follow the structure of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The three-part theater project was supposed to include the three realms of Paradise, Hell, and Purgatory. In an inversion of Dante's beliefs, The Investigation was supposed to correspond to the "Paradise" and yet be a place of despair for its victims. Inferno, written in 1964 but first published in 2003 as part of Weiss' estate, described the netherworld in its title. Due to the historical significance of the Auschwitz Trial, the Divine Comedy project was shelved, and the first third was published separately as The Investigation.
The play takes place in a courtroom during the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials (1963–1965) but Weiss did not intend an actual reconstruction where the proceedings took place nor representation of the camp itself. Auschwitz is present only in the words of the perpetrators, the victims and the personnel of the court. The Investigation is divided into eleven Dantean "cantos," each of which is subdivided into three parts – a 33-part structure which mimics Dante's Divine Comedy. Weiss's cantos depict the 'progress' of the victims from the ramp upon arrival at Auschwitz to the gas chambers and the ovens, revealing ever more horrendous moments in the perpetration of the Nazi genocide. Weiss refrains from all dramatic embellishments. The focus is entirely on the spoken word, often taken verbatim from the trial. Weiss's seemingly minimalist intervention in the protocols shows the dramatist (and former painter and filmmaker) who only a year earlier had created the sensational and wildly theatrical play Marat/Sade at the height of his art. The Investigation succeeds in transforming the actual protocols into a work of literature and art – to the extent that art may be best suited to convey a sense of the experience and preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
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