Leben des Galilei

In the organizer's words:

Play by Bertolt Brecht, with music by Hanns Eisler

Premiere on February 22, 2025

In German language

Age recommendation from 14 years

"He who does not know the truth is only a fool. But he who knows it and calls it a lie is a criminal!"

Despite his own doubts, the Italian mathematician and physicist Galileo Galilei taught the geocentric Ptolemaic world view in Italy for years, according to which the Earth - and therefore mankind - is at the center of the universe and the celestial bodies move around the Earth in circular orbits at a constant speed. This was justified and propagated by the church with the Bible. However, Galileo then discovered with the help of a telescope that there were many other planets in addition to the earth that moved around the sun, contrary to church doctrine. Nicolaus Copernicus had already put forward this theory in 1543, but without being able to prove it. Galileo's discovery was met with disbelief and rejection by the followers of the Church. He fails with his knowledge, fails with progress, fails with the truth. In 1616, the Inquisition finally banned the heliocentric Copernican world view, for which Galileo had found proof. For him, this meant living and working as a prisoner of the Inquisition until his death.

Brecht wrote the play in exile in Denmark in 1938 as a reaction to the news of the first fission of uranium atomic nuclei. Two further versions followed, in 1947 and 1956. All three versions address the current political situation in the world: the dropping of the atomic bombs and Oppenheimer's letter of defence as well as the remilitarization of West Germany and the threat of a third world war. Brecht drew parallels between his political present and the historical figure of Galileo Galilei. In 1633, he recanted his statement to the Inquisition that the earth revolved around the sun. With this play, Brecht once again raises the question of the responsibility and power of the individual in authoritarian systems.