Collection MSG 355 - Bertolt Brecht Collection

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was born on February 10, 1898, in Augsburg, Bavaria, German Empire.

He was a German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer known for his epic theatre, which broke away from traditional theatrical illusion. He developed drama as a platform for social and ideological discussions, particularly advocating leftist causes. He studied medicine at Munich University from 1917 to 1921 and served in an army hospital in 1918. During this time, he wrote his first play, Baal, which was produced in 1923. His first major success came with Trommeln in der Nacht (also known as Drums in the Night), which won the Kleist Prize in 1922. He published a collection of poems and songs titled Die Hauspostille in 1927, and his first professional production, Edward II, premiered in 1924. He greatly admired authors such as Wedekind, Rimbaud, Villon, and Kipling. In the period following World War I, he developed a strongly anti-bourgeois attitude that reflected his generation's deep disappointment with the civilization that had collapsed. Between 1924 and 1933 in Berlin, he worked briefly with directors Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator but primarily collaborated with his own group of associates. He partnered with composer Kurt Weill to create the satirical and successful ballad opera Die Dreigroschenoper (1928; The Threepenny Opera) and the opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1930; Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny). Additionally, he wrote what he termed “Lehrstücke” (“exemplary plays”), which were overtly didactic works intended for performance outside traditional theatre, often set to music by Weill, Hindemith, and Hanns Eisler. During these years, he further developed his “epic theatre” theory and an austere form of irregular verse.

Brecht, now a Marxist playwright, went into exile in Scandinavia from 1933 to 1941, mainly in Denmark, and then lived in the United States from 1941 to 1947, where he worked in Hollywood. His books were banned in Germany, and he lost his citizenship, cutting him off from German theatre. During his exile, he wrote many significant works, including: Mother Courage and Her Children (1941). - The Life of Galileo (1943). - The Good Woman of Setzuan (1943): Set in prewar China. - The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1957): A parable about Hitler’s rise in prewar Chicago. - Herr Puntila and His Man Matti (1948): About a Finnish farmer's dual nature. - The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1948): A story of a child's custody struggle. After testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, Brecht moved to Zürich for a year. He returned to Berlin in 1949 to stage Mother Courage at the Deutsches Theater, which led to the founding of the Berliner Ensemble. Brecht achieved significant acclaim, including a Stalin Peace Prize in Moscow in 1955.

He was married three times: first to Marianne Josefine Zoff (1922–1927), then to Helene Weigl (1927–1971), and finally to Paula Banholzer (1901-1989). He died of a heart attack on August 14, 1956, in East Berlin, East Germany.