Based on motifs from Erik Neutsch’s novel Spur der Steine [Track of the Stones, 1964] Der Bau [Construction Site] was written in 1963/1964, published in 1965, but not performed until 1980. With Der Bau, the storm that had greeted Müller’s final attempt to “correct” Die Umsiedlerin turned into a hurricane which blew him into a personal “ice age” that was to last for nearly a decade.
In structure and content, the new play represented a return to the world of industrial reconstruction of Die Korrektur. In the mud and chaos of the construction site GDR a new society is struggling to emerge. The problems are familiar – apathy and subversion in the work force, alienation of the intelligentsia, conflicts within the party itself between bureaucracy and opportunism on the one hand and the remains of...
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Citation: Milfull, John. "Der Bau". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14467, accessed 29 March 2026.]
