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 was first performed in 1958. 

This guide is based on the 2013 Bloomsbury Methuen Drama edition of the play, translated by Jennifer Wise.

Content Warning: The source material contains violence and a reference to death by suicide.

Plot Summary

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 represents Prussian (East German) landowners. The directors of the Cauliflower Trust in Chicago are named Flake, Clark, Caruther, Butcher, and Mulberry. They hatch a plan to ensure that Dogsborough (who represents von Hindenburg, the head of the Weimar government) can help them secure a government loan as a way to navigate difficult economic times. Dogsborough was once a member of the Trust, but left 20 years ago to enter politics. He has an upstanding reputation and is well-respected in the community.

Since Dogsborough is reluctant to petition the government for a loan on behalf of the Trust, the Trust offers him shares in a dockyard once owned by a man named Sheet. He accepts, believing that the shares are a gift. However, he soon advocates for the loan that—in theory—is intended to renovate the docks. The Trust members and Dogsborough use the funds to pay themselves, embezzling the funds. This incident allegorizes the Eastern Aid Scandal in German history. Dogsborough becomes guilty of corruption, though the extent of his involvement is hidden from the public.

When the gangster Arturo Ui (who represents Adolf Hitler) learns about Dogsborough’s betrayal of his civic duty, he tries to blackmail the respectable man. He demands Dogsborough’s public support in exchange for Ui’s silence. Dogsborough refuses and Ui leaves, but not before threatening that he will involve himself in the vegetable business, one way or another. The city begins to investigate the shady dealings surrounding the docks loan. The Cauliflower Trust panics. Sheet is summoned to City Hall to state publicly 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, the same mysterious agent who will soon arrive at the court to defend Dogsborough’s honor.

With Sheet out of the picture, Dogsborough waits for his defender. In his desperation, he has turned to 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, who was Sheet’s chief accountant until he was fired by Dogsborough. 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 further indebted to Ui.

Now that Dogsborough cannot risk trying to stop him, Ui moves into the vegetable business by demanding protection money from vegetable dealers. He sends his agents Givola (who represents Hitler’s propagandist Josef Goebbels) and Giri (who represents Herman Göring) to ask them whether they want murder or protection. One greengrocer, Hook, resists the gangsters. They burn his warehouse to the ground, intimidating the dealers into stating that they did not see anything suspicious. This incident represents the Reichstag fire.

An investigation is launched into the warehouse fire, but Ui and his gangsters threaten the Judge and turn the investigation into an absurd spectacle. The Judge then refuses to convict Giri and Givola. Instead, Ui’s gang frames an innocent man named Fish, drugging him so he cannot defend himself adequately in court. During the trial, the Judge seems tolerant of Ui’s corrupt antics. Fish is found guilty of starting the fire and the gangsters are acquitted.

Following the success of the investigation, Ui’s most loyal henchman Roma (who represents Ernst Röhm) tries to persuade Ui that Giri and Givola are plotting against him. Roma says that they hope to turn against him to enrich themselves. In doing so, he hopes to secure Ui’s permission to set an ambush for his rivals. However, while he waits, he is surprised by Ui and Givola, who shoot Roma and his gunmen.

Meanwhile, Ui has announced to his men that they are going to expand their criminal activities to the neighboring city, Cicero. When speaking in public, he makes use of the techniques taught to him by an actor. Ui wants to appear charming and intimidating. 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 a meeting. There he lays out his proposal to introduce his protection racket to Cicero. Dullfoot fails to agree enthusiastically, so Giri murders him. At his funeral, Betty confronts Ui, but it is too late. Ui makes the same offer of protection to Betty, knowing that she is powerless to stop him.

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 vegetable dealers 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. When one man does try to walk out of the meeting, the bodyguards follow him. A shot is heard, implying that the man has been murdered. Soon after, the other vegetable dealers vote unanimously to accept Ui’s offer.

In the play’s short Epilogue, the actor playing Ui drops his character and turns to the audience. He issues a warning to the audience, who has seen how quickly and easily a man like Arturo Ui (and, by implication, Adolf Hitler) can rise to power. While Ui (and Hitler) are defeated in the future, the Epilogue warns that the same ooze that gave rise to their violence remains just as potent.