The American Leviathan

All throughout his life, »America« was both dream and projection machinery to Heiner Müller. He never forgets the first Mickey Mouse film he saw as a child in Eppendorf, while Faulkner is a defining read in his adolescence. The early fascination is coupled with the disapproving scepticism towards the opposing system’s aggressive politics during the Cold War.

When Müller travels to the USA and Mexico in 1975 and subsequent years, he spends days and weeks in cinemas, meets director Robert Wilson and, with the concept of landscape, gains the crucial category for renewing his own theatrical work from the country’s vastness. At the same time, »America«, in Müller’s eyes, remains the code for the corrupt whole within a capitalism that has become global by now – and for a missed opportunity of history. This book gathers the most important passages on the America-complex in Heiner Müller’s œuvre in alphabetical order.

»In [his works] hides a wonderful licence to amorality« Hans-Dieter Schütt, neues deutschland

»After reading [this book], you will have a different perspective on [Heiner] Müller’s opinions as well. […] Müller exposes them, tests them and with them us, his audience.« Arno Widmann, Berliner Zeitung