»Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk« nach Jaroslav Hašek

based on Jaroslav Hašek / Bertolt Brecht / Sergei Okunev // Director: Jan-Christoph Gockel

Schwejk - a Till Eulenspiegel figure at war: with anarchic wit, "the good soldier" undermines the war machine of the First World War. Jaroslav Hašek's unfinished two-volume novel was praised by its author himself as the "best humorous-satirical book in world literature". Despite suffering from rheumatism, Schwejk goes to war, which Hašek's ludicrous episodes reveal to be chaos.

Bertolt Brecht was enthusiastic about the Schwejk character. Hašek's novel stayed with him for years. Together with Erwin Piscator, he developed a famous stage adaptation of the text, which was performed in 1928. Brecht also had plans to turn the material into a film, before finally writing his own play in exile in America in 1943, in which he marches "Schweyk in the Second World War", where he becomes a subservient cog of German fascism. Hanns Eisler wrote the music for it, including songs such as "Das Weib vom Nazisoldaten" and "Das Lied vom kleinen Wind". At the end of the play, Schwejk, "the little man", who has volunteered, meets Hitler in Stalingrad. Brecht's play forms the second part of a Schwejk trilogy, which director Jan-Christoph Gockel begins in the First World War.

The third part shows "Schwejk in Bachmut". The text is based on research by Russian-born director and author Sergei Okunev, who has lived in Germany since 2023 and conducted interviews with former Wagner mercenaries who were involved in the Battle of Bachmut. They take a look at the "small cogs" within the machinery of war. How do the individual cogs keep the machinery of destruction running? And: Can an "idiot" like Schwejk still throw a war machine out of step today?

Jan-Christoph Gockel combines politics with poetry like almost no other director: puppets, actors, film, music and documentary material come together in his works. He has directed productions such as "Öl!" and "Faust 1 & 2" at Schauspiel Frankfurt. He is resident director at the Münchner Kammerspiele, where he worked with Sergei Okunev for the first time on "Wallenstein". The work was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2026.