Spring Awakening: A Tragedy of Childhood | Frank Wedekind, 1891
Frühlings Erwachen, 1891 Frank Wedekind, 1883
“I was a baby when I came into the world–otherwise I might have been smart enough to become a different person.”
“I didn’t ask to be born, and I don’t owe God anything.”
“The fog is clearing; life is a matter of taste.”
“Wendla: How did you come here?
Melchior: I followed my thoughts.”
“We see God and the devil blaming each other, and cherish the unspeakable belief that both of them are drunk.”
“What good does it have to do? — We are fit for nothing more, neither good nor evil.”
“Monuments are for the living, not for the dead.”
“In my opinion it is unwise to judge a young man by his school record. We have too many examples of bad students becoming distinguished men, and, on the other hand, of brilliant students not being at all remarkable in life.”
“Search fearlessly for every sin, for out of sin comes joy.”
“Virtue is not a bad garment, but it requires an imposing figure.”
“I do not believe in pathos. Our elders show us long faces in order to hide their stupidity.”
”—It fell at my feet during the first vacation days. I was startled. I fastened the door and flew through the flaming lines as a frightened owl flies through a burning wood——I believe I read most of it with my eyes shut.”
“If I ever have children I will let them grow up like the weeds in our flower garden. Nobody worries about them and they grow so high and thick-while the roses in the beds grow poorer and poorer every summer.”
“Before I struck a light one could see the grass and a streak on the horizon. Now it is dark. Now I shall never return home again.”
Frank Wedekind, Spring Awakening: A Tragedy of Childhood, 1891
First performance 20 November 1906 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin under the direction of Max Reinhardt.
