Der Fröhliche Weinberg

(The Merry Vineyard) by Carl Zuckmayer.

   Premiered 1925. Zuckmayer's earthy comedy features a vintner from the Rhineland who insists that his daughter first become pregnant before marrying the man of her choice. Since the daughter's dowry includes half of his prosperous vineyard, she has no shortage of potential suitors. The play occasioned numerous protests after its premiere, many of them near Zuckmayer's native Rhenish countryside, where many residents felt themselves libelously portrayed. In most other locales, however, the comedy was enormously popular, and it remained a staple in most repertoires until 1933 when the National Socialists banned it, claiming Zuckmayer had made "a mockery of the Christian viewpoint, of German morals, [and] of German women" (quoted in Günther Rühle, Theater für die Republik [Frankfurt: Fischer, 1967], 667). The vintner himself copulates with a local girl 45 years his junior in a neighboring barn during the play, so the sense of moral indignation felt by some communities was perhaps understandable. The comedy also included debates about the preferred size of the male sex organ, a comparison of fertility rates between women and brood sows, and an unapologetic assertion that wine consumption fostered male potency.