The Damned

The scope of German political manipulations during the times of the Reichstag fire in February 1933 and, later on, during the Night of the Long Knives in late June 1934, represents an important backbone of the play The Damned and is transposed into an intimate space of Joachim von Essenbeck's family, a renowned steelmaking dynasty. The times of crisis that have imminent affect on to rapidly decaying old Germany, as well as on to alarming emergence of a new German state under the leadership of the new Chancellor, portray destinies of the members of the von Essenbeck family. The latter, tampered by the intimidating political regime, has evidently become a cradle of felons. After the death of the Baron Joachim, the von Essenbeck family members, who have engaged themselves into their own little succession feuds, fail to realize they have become marrionettes and mere casualties of a higher political agenda. Through juxtaposition of politics and intimate manipulations, especially within the view of interpersonal relations, the play The Damned shows how meticuously the Nazi government manipulated with its citizens years before the official begininng of the World War II. The family will kill its own leaders until it will ultimately destroy itself. A for sole reason only - because the whole family succumbed to ideas of a better state. During the World War I, the state needed the steelwork, and on account of that the Baron von Essenbeck did not hesitate to sacrifice his own son. In the new war, the state needs the cannons as much as it thrives on corpses and hatred. Martin von Essenbeck will therefore hand over the whole family to the Third Reich, and they will die one after another should they consider themselves stronger than the state. Consequently, the new state is no longer a place for communities such as family, as the state itself has become the family. In turn, Martin will be the one who will cast the last stone and unleash the deadly sweep of von Essenbeck family's sadism, thus bringing the last judgement upon once powerful dynasty.