William Shakespeare's Hamlet has become and is now more German than English, because of the way that in which the German people have adopted and interpreted the play and incorporated it into their culture.
From the very beginning Hamlet has been a favorite play in Germany, there is a German translation that dates back to 1710, though there are accounts of the play being performed in Germany within five years of Shakespeare's death.
In the 1800's,Shakespeare, and Hamlet especially, were well loved and talked about by the great German thinkers and writers, like Goether, and Schiller. In fact, now Shakespeare is considered their equal in German eyes, and they refer to the three great Klassiker Goethe, Schiller, and Shakespeare
In 1844, the German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath wrote a poem entitled Hamlet, where we wrote that Germany is Hamlet. I have translated this and done some interpretation, that indicates that Germany is Hamlet because, at least in the 1800's, it was full of great thinkers and philosophers, but few men of action. At that time there was no German state, but several German kingdoms. Freiligrath seems to mean with his poem that Germany should stop being so concerned with thinking and hesitating, like Hamlet was, and should start acting, or they would end up like Hamlet, stabbed and killed.
Even in Nazi Germany, where theatre was greatly curtailed and censored by the State, Hamlet was a popular choice. The Nazi government allowed Shakespeare to be performed, even though they had enacted laws that no foreign author's works be performed. And during the war era, when Shakespeare's comedies enjoyed vast popularity, and people seemed to be going to the theatre mostly for escape, Hamlet was produced 94 times.
The most famous and notable production was by Gustaf Gründgens, where he portrayed Hamlet more as a man of action, cutting many of the lines that indicated Hamlet's indecision and hesitation. Some saw this play as reinforcing Nazi ideals, while others saw oblique references to the Nazi regime in the characters of Claudius and Polonius, which would indicate that they hoped some Hamlet would arise and avenge the murdered King, representative of Germany's former glory.
Even today, with the yearly Shakespeare Festival at the Globe Neuss, Hamlet remains popular. This summer there are 4 different productions being staged in just four weeks. And I haven't even had time to write about Die Hamletmaschine, by Heiner Müller, the strangely postmodernist interpretation, or the ways in which Hamlet was understood and performed in East and West Germany during the time when the Berlin wall divided this country.
Hamlet is thoroughly German now. Despite all notions of it being written by an Englishman in England, about a Danish prince, this play has secured for itself a place in the hearts of Germans everywhere.
