Paul Wallfisch, interview part 2: "The American empire has won!"

Paul Wallfisch, Paul Wallfisch, musical director of the Dortmund theatre, accompanies Büchner’s Woyzeck with Indie Rock on stage, features weird musicians from New York in his musical salon „Small Beast“, and performs with his band Botanica during readings of Haruki Murakami stories.

Interview, part 2

2010LAB: : Büchner’s renowned classic is coated with J Mascis' Noise Rock – it won’t take German intellectuals too long to call this yet another attack of the American cultural imperialism… What will be you answer to that accusation?

Paul Wallfisch: It isn’t imperialism – we simply have won! I don’t mean that in a bad way, but the “American empire” slowly and steadily gets an own identity by all the cultural exports. The USA don’t have a historic common culture, they exist only on the declaration of independence and the constitution. It's kind of ironic that the country without culture has become the country of global culture in the course of the 20th century. Economically and military, we have dominated everything – we have brought our language, our products, and our culture to every place on the earth. Even the hairdressers in Dortmund are able to talk English. People saying „America, fuck you“ - they also use English words. That’s our identity as a country. But there also may be older, deeper, more important contributions from other countries.

Do you prefer living in Europe now due to these aspects?

Economically and military, Europe is almost as strong as America, and the quality of life is better here. Dortmund may not be a beautiful city, but it’s not worse than other cities either. After all, almost everything here was destroyed during WWII – I’m very spoiled because I have already lived in Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. But the Ruhr is also very interesting because it’s a conglomeration of so many cities, and Dortmund as a blue-collar town undergoing a strcutural change is very similar to Pittsburgh – including the black-and-yellow colours of the respective football teams.

There is a small, very successful scene in the USA influenced by the Weimar Republic: Dita von Teese with her Burlesque style, The Dresden Dolls with their „Brechtian Punk Cabaret“. How did this style arrive in the US?

Well, we all have been inspired by that era – in times of the Weimar Republic, German culture dominated the world, comparable to the American culture now. The Dresden Dolls are a very authentic act and they do it with a lot of heart, but nevertheless, it’s an avant-garde far away from mainstream America. Roughly 70 per cent of the US American population are not able to pinpoint Germany on a map.

2007, I visited New York’s „The Box “ which was considered the best club of the world at that time, with its extravagant, kinky stage show featuring artists, cabaret, and music. I was surprised how much of the show was very classic and European, oriented very much along the lines of the “Roaring Twenties”.

(surprised) Oh – interesting that you mention it. In that year, I was the musical director of the “Box“. Great times – unfortunately, they don’t have any live music there today. But New York doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the US anyway, so you may get a wrong impression...

Back to Dortmund: you do not only stage „Small Beast“, but also the „Murakami Nights“ at the theatre. What happens in the latter production?

Paul Wallfisch: The Japanese author Haruki Murakami has a musical background –in the past, he had a record shop. He has learned everything about writing from music. In his novels, everything is exactly described – what the characters hear, what they eat. We do accompany two of his stories, „Sputnik Sweetheart“ and „Dangerous Lover“ musically – from Brahms and Mozart to T.Rex and Radiohead – and culinary with a menu.

Notwithstanding a comparison of Dortmund to New York: what made you move to the Ruhr?

Dortmund has a nice theatre, incredibly actors, and a very inspiring artist as its director. These prerequisites would have made me move to any other town, too – for me, it’s all about art. I’m already looking forward to next year: we’ll be staging Bulgakow’s „The Master and Margarita“.

How long will you stay in Dortmund?

Paul Wallfisch: For the time being, until 2012. After that – who knows…

Here you can read the first part of the interview.