William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice has been translated into a variety of languages throughout the world, and with these different translations different interpretations of the play are bound to occur. Variation of the play can clearly be seen in German translations and German interpretations of The Merchant of Venice and these variations occur due to different values and beliefs of German culture depending on the time period. German translations of The Merchant of Venice vary based off of William Shakespeare’s original version of The Merchant of Venice. One way to prove these differences is to analyze different German translations of The Merchant of Venice based off the time period. Analyzing German translations of The Merchant of Venice before and after the Holocaust will show how the translations and interpretations of the play transformed based off the culture and values of Germany. The easiest way to see these variations in German translations is with the portrayal of Shylock and to see whether German translators and interpreters were using the play to spread anti-Semitic propaganda during the Holocaust and how they adapted these interpretations of Shylock once World War II ended.
Before the Holocaust occurred, Jewish people faced anti-Semitism in Germany and Germans considered Jews to be beneath them. One way that Germans reinforced the conduct that Jews were beneath Germans was the portrayal of Jews on stage in the theater (Bonnell 9). Jewish characters were portrayed as villainous, senseless, greedy, and other unkind qualities to spread the point that Jews were not as worthy as Germans were. This was technique was used to reinforce the idea that Jews were beneath Germans in a setting that attracted general citizen attention. These interpretations of Jews on the theater’s stage were also a form of German propaganda. This type of propaganda was used to show Jewish people and Jewish culture in a negative light in front of German citizens.
An example of an unreasonable and biased portrayal of Shylock, in German history is found when the actor Werner Krauss portrays Shylock in the 1920s. Krauss’ portrayal of Shylock on the German stage made him famous during World War II. There were many different views on how Krauss portrayed Shylock, but one in particular described Krauss’ Shylock as “demonic” and as “villainous” (Bonnell 77,96). Krauss’ interpretation of Shylock was widely popular with Germans because it shed Jews in a negative light. While Shylock was a despicable character in Shakespeare’s original version of The Merchant of Venice, Krauss’ portrayal of Shylock goes above and beyond along with the ability to make the crowds cringe when he walked out onto stage as Shylock.
Krauss portrays Shylock as someone seeking revenge upon Antonio and Bassanio when they come to him for a loan. Krauss portrays Shylock in a way that forces the audience to hate him and to find Shylock as a character revolting, despicable, and cruel. Krauss’ mannerisms while he acted as Shylock contributed largely to this negative association of the character. Krauss’ portrayal of Shylock was a combination of “part madman and part village idiot” and along with Krauss would also make claw-like gestures (Horowitz 14) in order to emphasize this demonic element of Shylock. Krauss’ purpose for this was to make Shylock as revolting as possible to the audience and by doing this Krauss gained a lot of popularity throughout Germany. Krauss also was able to make the audience hate Shylock.
Germany was trying to send a message by its repetitive casting of Werner Krauss as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. As an actor, Krauss did a wonderful job in creating Shylock as an undesirable Jewish villain, and the Germans knew this. Krauss received a magnitude of recognition in a previous film where he play a despicable Jewish character. When the opportunity arose for Krauss to play another villainous Jew, everyone knew he would be perfect for the part. According to Ludwig Schnauder, “Müthel’s choice of Krauss assured the production national attention and led audiences to expect that the actor would impersonate Shylock in a similar way to the Jewish characters in Jud Süß” (Schnauder). By encouraging Krauss’ performance of Shylock in such a despicable light, Germany was trying to succeed in sending a message across their country and even the world saying that Jews were the enemy and they could not be trusted.
Without these anti-Semitic elements, The Merchant of Venice would not have been produced in Germany as often as it was. Scholars believe that it would be nearly impossible for theaters in Germany to hold a performance of The Merchant of Venice without the play having the anti-Semitic elements in play. When the play was performed in Nazi Germany, it was described as “a pure comedy suppressing, as far as possible, all tragic and contemporary references, or they openly declared their Nazi convictions by pointedly racist renderings” (Schnauder). If The Merchant of Venice strayed away from these elements, performers feared that they would be associated as sympathizing with Jews and would become enemies of the Nazis and Germany. Thus, the anti-Semitic components of The Merchant of Venice were hard to eliminate during Hitler’s rule over Germany.
Another example of German translators and interpreters manipulating the play to suit their needs is found when Shylock’s daughter, Jessica is marrying Lorenzo. This would be considered a problem on the German stage because Jessica was Jewish and Lorenzo was an Aryan Christian. Displaying this marriage in front of an audience would have been illegal in Germany during this time. The solution to this was “an adapted and censored version of the play in which Jessica is turned into Shylock’s foster child and all references to her Jewishness are cut”” (Shnauder). This adapted version of The Merchant of Venice provided an out of a Jewish-Christian marriage. This “adaptation” proves that translators and interpreters were able to manipulate the play into what they wanted in order to protect their ideologies, and this is just one example of Germany manipulating the text to suit their needs.
However, after the Holocaust we see a different interpretation of Shylock not only in Germany but throughout the rest of the world as well. These new interpretations of Shylock are described as a “hands-off” mentality that was caused after World War II because the world felt guilty about the Holocaust (Horowitz 9). The guilt that resulted from the Holocaust made producers of The Merchant of Venice attempt to portray Shylock in a more suitable light, which basically meant they were attempting to portray him in a way that was not villainous and strayed from the original play’s context. Translators and producers were trying to be sensitive to the fact that Shylock was a Jewish character. Some examples of these portrayals are Shylock being a concentration camp prisoner, a black man, an undercover Israeli soldier, and more. While these portrayals are interesting adaptations, they are used in a way to reshape the play’s original meaning. Shylock had many different negative qualities in Shakespeare’s original play, but the Holocaust resulted in people not wanting to acknowledge these negative qualities because it would be insensitive to the Jewish religion as a whole. While being sensitive to religious differences is acceptable, it is unjustifiable to adapt a play to such extremes only to save face.
Horowitz claims that these new modern adaptations of The Merchant of Venice make the “traditional interpretation into a horrific display of religious insensitivity” (Horowitz 9). These new adaptations to The Merchant of Venice are trying to save the play by trying to show different interpretations of Shylock. Although, after World War II and the Holocaust portraying Shylock in an anti-Semitic fashion became harder to do in front of an audience. In fact, when The Merchant of Venice portrayed Shylock as the villain, the audience considered the play and the actor of Shylock to be taboo. However, in some circumstances this led to future productions of The Merchant of Venice to be even more offensive than before in order to test the boundaries of the audience (Nahshon 220).
An example of this is found in Peter Zadek’s production of The Merchant of Venice. Zadek was a young Jewish director who as a child had to flee Germany in order to escape the Holocaust. Zadek created a Shylock based off of Werner Krauss’ Shylock from the 1920s in order to make the German audience feel uncomfortable rather than the Jewish audience. Zadek’s Shylock was described as “a nightmare that seemed to emanate from the collective German subconscious” and as “kin to the devil” (Nahshon 220). This adaptation of The Merchant of Venice is an interesting twist to the anti-Semitic play because it allows the German audience, along with other non-Jewish audiences to see the error in their ways. However, Zadek’s portrayal of Shylock did not receive recognition, but instead received backlash along with audiences and critics not understanding Zadek’s point of view
In conclusion, The Merchant of Venice is a play that was favored by Germany for many years. However, after the Holocaust and World War II, this play