The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui)
is a 1941 play by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Ostensibly telling the story of a gangster, Arturo Ui, as he seizes control of the vegetable trade in Chicago and neighboring Cicero, Illinois, Brecht’s play is a satirical allegory of the Nazis’ rise to power. Each of the play’s characters and events has a parallel in the history of Nazi Germany, and Brecht’s stage directions call for signs or projections to be displayed during the play, explaining these parallels for the audience.

The play opens with a prologue, outlining the plot, to encourage audience members to focus on the political message of the play, rather than its story.

An association of vegetable merchants, The Cauliflower Trust, is seeking a way to expand its members’ profits in difficult economic times. The Trust, which represents Prussian (East German) landowners, comprises four characters: Clark, Sheet, Butcher, and Bowl. They hatch a plan to bribe the Mayor of Chicago, Dogsborough (who represents von Hindenburg, the head of the Weimar government). Dogsborough awards Sheet’s company the contract for a docks improvement project, enabling the Trust to secure a large public loan towards that project, even though he knows the Trust does not intend to complete it. In exchange, Dogsborough gets Sheet’s shipping company, although this implicates him in the Trust’s wrongdoing. This episode allegorizes the Eastern Aid Scandal in German history.



When the gangster Arturo Ui (who represents Adolf Hitler) learns about Dogsborough’s betrayal of his civic duty, he tries to blackmail the Mayor, demanding his public support in exchange for Ui’s silence. Dogsborough refuses, and Ui leaves, but not before threatening that “one day/ the vegetable business shall be mine!”

The city begins to investigate the shady dealings surrounding the docks contract. The Cauliflower Trust panics. Sheet is summoned to City Hall to state publically that he still owns his shipping company, but he fails to turn up. A newspaper boy announces that he has been found dead, murdered. Clark remarks that Sheet must have failed to reach an “agreement” with the Trust’s agent: we understand that the Trust has had Sheet killed.

With Sheet out of the picture, Dogsborough needs someone else to cover for him; he brings in the only person prepared to lie for him under this kind of scrutiny: Arturo Ui. O’Casey, the city clerk, formally accuses Dogsborough of “abuse of the public trust” and calls his first witness, Bowl. Machine-gun fire is heard offstage, and Bowl’s body is brought in. O’Casey is forced to give up his inquiry, and Dogsborough is indebted to Ui.



Now that Dogsborough cannot risk trying to stop him, Ui moves into the vegetable business by demanding protection money from greengrocers. He sends his agents Givola (who represents Hitler’s propagandist Josef Goebbels) and Giri (Herman Göring) to ask them: “What’s it gonna be, murder or protection?” One greengrocer, Jim Crockett, resists the gangsters, and they burn his warehouse to the ground. This episode represents the Reichstag fire.

Another investigation is launched, into the warehouse fire, but Ui and his gangsters threaten the judge, who refuses to convict Giri and Givola. Instead, Ui’s gang frames the innocent Fish, drugging him so he cannot defend himself adequately in court. Fish is found guilty of starting the fire, and the gangsters are acquitted.

Ui’s henchman Roma (who represents Ernst Röhm) tries to persuade Ui that Giri and Givola are plotting against him, securing Ui’s permission to set an ambush for his rivals. However, while he waits, he is surprised by Ui and Givola, who shoot Roma.



Meanwhile, Ui has announced to his men that they are going to expand their criminal activities to the neighboring city, Cicero. He receives lessons from an actor in public speaking. Then, Ui invites Ignatius Dullfoot, a Cicero press baron (who represents the Chancellor of Austria), and his wife Betty, who runs Cicero’s vegetable trade, to dinner. There he lays out his proposal to introduce his protection racket to Cicero. Dullfoot fails to agree enthusiastically, and Giri murders him. At his funeral, Betty confronts Ui, but it is too late.

Ui, backed by the Cauliflower Trust, takes over the vegetable trade in Cicero, announcing that Betty Dullfoot’s company has “merged” with the Cauliflower Trust. Ui tells the assembled greengrocers of Cicero that it was Ignatius Dullfoot who proposed introducing Ui’s protection system to Cicero, having seen its success in Chicago. Ui offers the grocers a vote on whether to accept his protection, but the grocers are only too aware of what might happen to them should they fail to vote the way Ui wishes.

In the play’s final moment, the actor playing Ui drops his character and turns to the audience. He issues a warning: “Let’s not drop our guard too quickly then:/ Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard/ The bitch that bore him is in heat again.”



As well as explaining the political machinations that brought Hitler to power, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui provides an illustration of how fascist takeovers can happen anywhere, emphasizing that such takeovers are “resistible.”