Professor Peter Jelavich on Nathan the Wise, LBI Book Club

[@karsten9895]

Thank you for sharing this excellent lecture. For me 'Nathan the Wise' was a piece of literature that I viewed respectfully, because I learned about it in school first in East Germany, then later again in an evening school in Marburg in the reunified Germany. I did not read it completely, as it often goes with school literature (we were not oblidged to in this case), and I failed to make a deeper emotional connection to this masterpiece till I saw a great production of it on stage on the Berliner Ensemble by Claus Peymann in the first decade of this century. Since then I'm fascinated with Nathan's story. It is interesting and thought provoking to me on so many levels: as a German of course, who has to come to terms with my country's history, with the fact that one of my grandfathers was a nazi, with my role as a father (Nathan's terribly traumatic past is just gut wrenching), with my shaky allegiance to and ambigious feelings for my Lutheran Church and the fact that it to this day downplays Luther's terrible anti-semitism and finally with my religious faith in general. I thought already in school that the religious ideas of both: Lessing and Mendelson, are very worthwile examining on a deeper level and now I feel that this Enlightenment idea of religious pluralism describes my personal faith precisely. Anyway, thank you so much for reminding me of this faszinating background story of a great play of world lierature. Also, thank you Claus Peymann and great actors of the Brecht Ensemble for bringing this work to life for me. I'm usually more of a reader than theatre goer and I saw Lessing productions like Emilia Galotti and others on stage before and thought: that's nice and Lessing certainly was a terrific guy, but somehow his plays seem a little stiff to me and his language somewhat stilted, however this Peymann production changed that for me. I'm probably gonna search for some Mendelson literature as well yet. Which is going to be difficult in Peru where I live now. God bless everyone!