Carl Zuckmayer

„Zuckmayer tells a juicy tale, a collection of anecdotes surrounding the Captain of Koepenick. Let’s dissect his plot and humour. First, there are the amusing scenes with the mayor of Koepenick, who struggles to still fit into his uniform as officer of the reserve. They make us laugh. But why? About the ambition of certain classes or about the gap between the military and civilians? A well known motive in military comedies. However, one does not laugh about the satire, but about the shortcomings of civilians. The play walks this critical tight rope. Basically the officer, who is involved in a scandal in the Cafe National and has to take his leave, holds our sympathies much more than do those around him. The characters around him are distinguished by their very own humour.(...)
The unseeming success that the play had in its time is truly intriguing. (…)
This prank that audiences all over the world laugh about is a political event of the first order which divided opinions. (…) The whole of Germany joined in, from the left and from the right, but it would split society into two camps.” (Herbert Ihering about the world premiere at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1931.)