Professor Mamlock is a theater play written by Friedrich Wolf in 1933. Portraying the hardships a Jewish doctor named Hans Mamlock experiences under the Hitler regime, it is one of the earliest works dealing with Nazi antisemitism.
Characters
Professor Hans Mamlock, a renowned Jewish surgeon and a decorated World War I veteran, holds conservative political views. Ellen Mamlock, the professor's non-Jewish wife, holds right-wing views. Rolf Mamlock, the professor's son, a committed communist. Ruth Mamlock, the professor's daughter, holds right-wing views. Doctor Friedrich Carlsen, attending physician who supervises Mamlock's staff in the clinic and his long-time friend. Doctor Hirsch, a Jewish physician in the clinic. Doctor Hellpach a physician in the clinic, holds right-wing views. Doctor Inge Ruoff a female physician in the clinic and a member of the Nazi Party. Nurse Hedwig, the clinic's nurse. Simon, a Jewish medic in the clinic. Werner Seidel, editor of a liberal newspaper, undergoing an operation in the clinic. Ernst, a communist, Rolf's friend.
Synopsis
Act I
Before the May 1932 elections, in Mamlock's clinic.
The personnel and patients in the clinic discuss the political situation. Ruof and Hellpach support Adolf Hitler, while Hirsch and Seidel believe his rise to power will lead to war. Mamlock arrives and forbids conversation about politics in the institute.
Act II
28 February 1933. Mamlock's house.
Rolf claims the Nazis staged the Reichstag fire; after a heated argument with his father, who disapproves of his political stance, Rolf must move out of the residence. Simon arrives and announces that the SA are searching the clinic for 'non-Aryan' doctors. The government decrees that all communists, pacifists, Jews and other opponents of the new regime will be banned from practicing medicine and holding other offices. Ruoff declares she will not be willing to work under a Jew; Hellpach leaves the clinic to join the SS.
Act III
April 1933. Mamlock's house.
Mamlock is not allowed to enter his clinic by law, while his daughter Ruth is attacked at school. Ruth and Ellen realize that their early, idealistic support of the Nazis was misguided. When Mamlock attempts to talk with Hellpach, who now runs the institute, he encounters a group of SA men who molest him. He returns home a broken man, carrying a Yellow badge.
Act IV
The next day, in the clinic.
A new government decree lifts the working ban from all veterans of the First World War. Mamlock and Hirsch return to the clinic. There, Hellpach announces that all 'non-Aryans' who are not subject to the decree will be dismissed. Simon loses his work. Mamlock is revolted by this, and demands justice. He organizes a petition in which he calls upon the government to treat all citizens equally. Hellpach is enraged, and demands from all other personnel to sign an affidavit according to which Mamlock is guilty of various crimes. Mamlock is shocked to see that they all agree to do so – except Ruoff, who rejects her Nazi convictions. He realizes that his friends have abandoned him. Exasperated and despaired, Mamlock tells Inge that she and his son should fight for a better future. Then, he commits suicide.
History
Writing
Wolf wrote Professor Mamlock shortly after the Reichstag Fire forced him to leave Germany for exile in France; he intended his work to be staged by Gustav von Wangenheim's theater group Truppe 1931. He completed Professor Mamlock while vacating in Île-de-Bréhat. The playwright later told that he conceived the play on the very day after the Fire, when many of his friends called him, blaming him of being a communist and a sympathizer of those who set the Parliament aflame. Consequently, they severed all contacts with him.
While the character of Mamlock bears resemblance to the author himself – a Jewish doctor, married to a non-Jewish wife – there was a real man named Professor Hans-Jacques Mamlok (12 April 1875, Koschmin – 11 November 1940, New York) who was a prominent dentist in Germany before the Nazi takeover. He emigrated to the United States, arriving three days after the opening of Professor Mamlock in New York, in April 1937; although he claimed that the play was based on his life, it is unknown whether Wolf was inspired by him.