La Première Guerre mondiale dans l’opérette de langue allemande à l’exemple de l’opérette Im Konzentrationslager (1917) de Helene Fürnkranz

The article studies the case of an operetta written by a woman of Austrian origin interned at the Garaison camp (Hautes-Pyrénées) where German and Austrian civilian families were gathered during the First World War. This operetta by Helene Fürnkranz, whose title takes the official name of the camp, evokes precisely the life of the internees, drawing in large amounts on the author's biography and her experience at Garaison. The work is original in that it offers the point of view of an Austrian citizen in France during the First World War, a woman as well, and seems to be one of the few operettas that makes the conflict its very subject and not just a background. Putting this libretto into perspective with some of the more canonical operettas in the German-language repertoire (Gold gab ich für Eisen and Die Csárdasfürstin by Emmerich Kálmán, Die Rose von Stambul by Leo Fall and Viktoria und ihr Husar by Paul Abraham), the article first examines the realistic portrayal of war in Fürnkranz's operetta, then the light and humorous treatment and staging of the war, before considering the significance of the female perspective, which is central to the play.