GERMANY: Blasphemous Backdrops

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A stolid jury foreman said, "We find the prisoner guilty." A blinking owlish Berlin judge imposed a fine of 2,000 gold marks ($576). Thus Society sought once more to quell famed George Grosz, irrepressible modernist painter, obstreperous pacifist. This time he had been caught painting back drops for a pacifist play, "with intent to blaspheme God Almighty and libel the Christian Religion."

As the sentence was imposed, some 200 Frauen and Frauleins in the gallery of the court shrilled protests. Adoring, they had hoped to see, "unser lieber George" triumphantly acquitted. Spellbound they had heard his bold though Vain defense:

"I plead, 'Not guilty!' The charges against me are irrelevant and absurd. Since I have never believed in any god, I cannot have painted those backdrops 'with intent to blaspheme God Almighty.' There is no such entity! It is impossible to blaspheme what does not exist. . . .

"Secondly, it was no libel for me to depict Christ and his ministers as militant. The Christian Religion is that of the peoples who fought the Greatest War!"

Since Painter Grosz does not lack cash, he paid his stiff fine without hesitation, jauntily left the court with his entourage of women. Meanwhile shocked policemen confiscated the blasphemous back drops. Each was to have loomed behind an act of The Brave Soldier Schweyk, a savagely pacifist drama by E. E. Kisch, from the novel by the late Czechoslovak writer Jaroslav Hasek.

Act One

Backdrop: a huge, grimacing clergyman, expectorating cannon, shells.

Painted Title: "Outpouring of the Holy Ghost."

Act Two

Backdrop: same clergyman between two generals, balancing a cross on his nose.

Title: "Submit to your Superiors."

Act Three

Backdrop: a private soldier crucified, with gas mask fitted to his drooping head. A bright halo suggests that the soldier represents Christ.

Title: "Shut your mouth, and do your duty."