DEFROCKING THE DEPUTY (HOCHHUTH'S DER STELLVERTRETER)

The controversy aroused by Rolf Hochhuth's play Der Stellvertreter (The Deputy, 1963) has been called “one of the greatest publicity successes of the century” and even “the largest storm ever raised by a play in the whole history of the drama.” Within six months of its premiere on February 20, 1963, more than 3,000 reactions—reviews, reports, letters—had been published in German newspapers and journals and documented in a collection commissioned by the publisher. That same year, a Swiss publisher brought out an anthology of articles in response to the demonstrations that accompanied the play's performance in Basel. A year later Eric Bentley released his The Storm over the Deputy, which was characterized on the cover as a collection of (mostly American) “essays and articles about Hochhuth's explosive drama.” Meanwhile the play was being produced in London, Paris, Vienna, Athens, New York, Odense, Stockholm, the Netherlands (though it had to be shifted from The Hague to Rotterdam), and Tel Aviv (despite official statements supporting the Pope). In Italy and Spain, Church pressure prevented performances; an attempt in Rome was stopped by the police. In 1964, Jacques Nobécourt, an editor for German and Italian affairs at Le Monde in Paris, published a long and thoughtful account of the whole affair: the theme of the play and its repercussions around the world among Catholics, Protestants, and Jews; the historical reality of the various figures of the play and its background; and its critical reception.