Heike Geißler »Michaela Kohlhaas«

An event from the Literatur zur Zeit series

Moderation: Wolfgang Frömberg

"A sense of justice turned him into a robber and murderer." So says Heinrich von Kleist in his novella of the same name about the horse trader Michael Kohlhaas, who exacts bloody revenge after suffering injustice. Two hundred years later, his campaign of revenge still serves as a model and guide for Michaela Kohlhaas, a deputy cemetery administrator. Fueled by her experience of arbitrariness and powerlessness, she becomes a rebel. But where Michael Kohlhaas murders and pillages, she acts primarily with words: with exaggeration, exaggeration, sabotage and show. Like a supposed witch, she travels the country cursing and uttering imprecations. And has to realize: It is a disadvantage to be a woman. It is a disadvantage to fight back. But even if the whole world declares her insane - she goes "with waving flags" towards her end, hoping for a good ending, and yet suspecting that there may not be such an end.

Heike Geißler's Michaela Kohlhaas is a daring rewrite of Heinrich von Kleist's famous novella. Her Michaela is a scolding, a stinking, a tender one. A great lover who doesn't just want improvement - she demands reparation and atonement. And a completely different arrangement of the world.