Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht (February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) was an influential German dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century.

Later life

Although Brecht lived in East Germany, a copyright on his writings was held by a Swiss company and he received valuable hard currency remittances. He used to drive around East Berlin in a pre-war DKW car — a rare luxury in the austere divided capital.

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Brecht wrote very few plays in his last years in Berlin, none of them as famous as his previous works. Some of his most famous poems, however, including the "Buckower Elegies", were from this time.

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Brecht died in 1956 of a heart attack at the age of 58.

Related Topics:
1956 - Heart attack

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In one of his last poems, he ironically suggested that inscribing "He made suggestions; we carried them out" on his gravestone would be "a way to honor everyone". In fact, on his grave at the Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder Cemetery in Berlin there is only a boulder with his name.

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Had he wanted to use it, one of his late poems could have served as a fitting epitaph:

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