There is not much going on in Rosenheim anymore. Hardly any people, and they sit in the dark as soon as night falls. If they want to go away, they ride. If they have a horse. This is roughly how you can imagine the Middle Ages. It’s actually long gone. But in Carl Amery’s novel “The Downfall of the City of Passau”, published in the mid-1970s, people only need a few decades to bring their civilization back to the level of the Middle Ages.
In Passau at least there is electricity and there are lights. But no one left to maintain the infrastructure. And yet they have big plans in the city, to which a father, played by Stephan Zinner, and his son from Rosenheim set off in search of a better life.
Megalomania is at the heart of every potential development
Humanity has radically decimated itself; And now she is faced with the question of how to proceed: Should she live again like in the Middle Ages or should she be technologized again, at least in selected places like Passau. People there consider themselves to be something better, and so every potential development of megalomania is in the bud. On the other hand, those who prefer a completely pre-industrial way of life are shaped by their despondency, by the lack of a spirit of optimism – an analogue life also needs to be designed.
The two-part radio play, staged by Bernadette Sonnenbichler, makes the aimlessness of its characters its own by meandering through the self-created scenery, without a clear direction, apparently not purposeful. But not out of arbitrariness or indecision, but in order to depict this story by means of its own structure.
The best example is the father who explains the world to his son in a very patriarchal and self-satisfied way that he himself does not understand. This is where this dystopia gets exciting. Real humanity is at a point where it is becoming more and more difficult to understand the increasingly complex relationships. In the radio play, those who claim to have the simple solutions have the big say.
The downfall of the city of Passau, Bavaria 2, second part: July 24th, 3:05 p.m. Part 1: ARD audio library.