Bertolt Brecht

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

Life and career

Born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Brecht studied medicine and worked briefly as an orderly in a hospital in Munich during World War I. After the war he moved to Berlin where an influential critic, Herbert Ihering, brought him to the attention of a public longing for modern theater. Brecht's first two plays, Baal and Drums in the Night, had already had performances in Munich, and he got to know Erich Engel, a director who worked with him off and on for the rest of his life. In Berlin, In the Jungle of the Cities, starring Fritz Kortner and directed by Engel, became his first success.

Related Topics:
Augsburg - Bavaria - Munich - World War I - Berlin - Herbert Ihering - Erich Engel - Fritz Kortner

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During the postwar socialist governments and then the Weimar Republic, Brecht met and began to work with Hanns Eisler — the composer with whom he shared the closest friendship throughout his life. He also met Helene Weigel, who would become his second wife and accompany him through exile and for the rest of his life. His first book of poems, Hauspostille, won a literary prize.

Related Topics:
Socialist - Weimar Republic - Hanns Eisler - Helene Weigel

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He married the opera singer and actress Marianne Zoff in 1922. Their daughter, Hanne Hiob, born in 1923 is a well-known German actress. One year later they had a son, Stefan. In 1930 Brecht married Weigel, and their daughter Barbara was born soon after. She also became an actress and currently holds the copyrights to all of Brecht's work.

Related Topics:
Marianne Zoff - 1922 - Hanne Hiob - 1923 - 1930 - Barbara

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Brecht formed a writing collective which became prolific and very influential. Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Emil Burri, Ruth Berlau and others worked with Brecht and produced the multiple Lehrstücke (teaching plays), which attempted a new dramaturgy for participants rather than passive audiences. These addressed themselves to the massive worker arts organisation that existed in Germany and Austria in the 1920s. So did Brecht's first great play, Saint Joan of the Stockyards, which attempted to portray the drama in financial transactions. He also worked in the theaters of Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator.

Related Topics:
Elisabeth Hauptmann - Margarete Steffin - Emil Burri - Ruth Berlau - Germany - Austria - 1920s - Max Reinhardt - Erwin Piscator

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This collective adapted John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, with Brecht's songs set to music by Kurt Weill. Retitled The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) it was the largest hit in Berlin of the 1920s and a renewing influence on the musical worldwide. One of its most famous lines underscored the hypocrisy of conventional morality imposed by the Church, working in conjunction with the established order, in the face of working-class hunger and deprivation:

Related Topics:
John Gay - The Beggar's Opera - Kurt Weill - The Threepenny Opera - Musical

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The success of The Threepenny Opera was followed by the quickly thrown together Happy End. It was a personal and a commercial failure. The book was then claimed to be by the mysterious Dorothy Lane (now known to be Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's secretary and close collaborator.) Brecht only claimed authorship of the song texts. Brecht would later uses elements of Happy End as the germ for his Saint Joan of the Stockyards, a play that would never see the stage in Brecht's life-time. Happy Ends most redeming quality was its inspired score by Weill; producing many Brecht/Weill hits like 'Der Bilbao-Song' and 'Surabaya-Jonny'.

Related Topics:
The Threepenny Opera - Elisabeth Hauptmann

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The masterpiece of the Brecht/Weill collaborations, Mahagonny, premiered in 1930 in Leipzig with an uproar, having Nazi's protesting the opera in the audience. The Mahagonny opera would premier later in Berlin in 1931 as a triumphant sensation.

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Brecht spent his last years in Berlin (1930-1933) working with his ?collective? on Lehrstücke, or Learning-Pieces. These were a group of plays driven by morals, music and Brecht's budding Epic Theatre. The Lehrstücke often aimed at educating workers on Socialist issues. The Measures Taken, by far the most popular and scandalous of this series, was scored by Hanns Eisler. In addition, Brecht worked on a script for a semi-documentary feature film about the human impact of mass unemployment, Kuhle Wampe (1932), which was directed by Slatan Dudow. This striking film is notable for its subversive humour, outstanding cinematography by Günther Krampf, and Hanns Eisler's dynamic musical contribution. It still provides a vivid insight into Berlin during the last years of the Weimar Republic.

Related Topics:
Hanns Eisler - Kuhle Wampe - Slatan Dudow - Cinematography - Günther Krampf - Weimar Republic

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By February 1933, Brecht?s work was eclipsed by the rise of Nazi (fascist) rule in Germany.

Related Topics:
Nazi - Fascist

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