The majority of Germans now think of the concern about gas together with the anxious question of whether it will be possible to heat in winter and how much it will all cost again. But gas is much more. A propellant from factories. The availability of gas accelerated the industrial revolution. In their home country, the first plant for the production of gas from coal was built in London in 1810; the first German city to rely on gas for its infrastructure was Hanover in 1825, home of the English kings.
When the gas was no longer obtained from coal (this method is reminiscent of the saying “Count Koks von der Gasanstalt”), but only natural gas had to be fed into the houses, the gasworks in the cities were demolished. Berlin had 33 of them. One of the last to disappear was the factory on the site of which Ernst Thälmann Park in Prenzlauer Berg is today.
The double play “Gas” from 1920 by the playwright Georg Kaiser, which together with “The Coral” (1917) forms a trilogy, is set at a time when many more cookers and production facilities, but often also the lighting in streets and private houses, depended on gas forms. This tells of a time when self-made men could still get very rich with gas. It is the story of a gas billionaire family.
In the “Coral” the main character is the founder of the gasworks, whose wealth does not make him happy because he cannot shake off his loveless childhood. Eventually he kills his secretary and double, swaps identities with him, steals his past and almost happily lets himself be executed as a billionaire killer.
In “Gas” the billionaire’s son tries to realize his socialist ideas and gives the workers a share of the profits. This only leads to even greater (self) exploitation. In “Gas 2” his son, the “billionaire worker” who has more successfully broke away from his class, is just one kind of gas slave among many in a dictatorship.
“Gas” and “Gas 2” in particular are regarded as highlights of expressionist drama. Behind the ragged language, the pathos and the powerful dramaturgy, which seem a bit strange to us today, it negotiates very contemporary issues. The one after the responsibility of the super-rich, for example. Or the problem of not being able to escape your class – regardless of whether you come from below or above. And the impossibility of overcoming capitalism in an industrial system. Kaiser also describes ecological catastrophes.
At least one theater has recognized the topicality of Kaiser’s “Gas” work. It has been played in Dresden since September. The piece is by no means suitable for left-wing propaganda. Kaiser distrusted the masses and advocated individuality. Although his nameless figures have typical designations such as “black gentleman”, “white gentleman”, “grand engineer” and “billionaire”, he adopted the thesis from the anarchist Gustav Landauer: “Everything begins with the individual; and everything depends on the individual.” In this he is a typical expressionist: He found the I more interesting than the we.
