Brecht, Bertolt (Eugen Berthold Friedrich) (1898–1956)

German dramatist and poet. He was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century theatre. A committed Marxist, he sought to develop an ‘epic theatre’ which aimed to destroy the ‘suspension of disbelief’ usual in the theatre and so encourage audiences to develop an active and critical attitude to a play's subject. He adapted John Gay's The Beggar's Opera as Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera (1928), set to music by Kurt Weill. Later plays include Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder/Mother Courage and her Children (194l), set during the Thirty Years' War, and Der kaukasische Kreidekreis/The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1945).

As an anti-Nazi, Brecht left Germany in 1933 for Scandinavia and the USA; he became an Austrian citizen after World War II. He established the Berliner Ensemble theatre group in East Germany in 1949, and in the same year published Kleines Organon für das Theater/Little Treatise on the Theatre, a concise expression of his theatrical philosophy. His other works include Leben des Galilei/The Life of Galileo (1938), Der gute Mensch von Setzuan/The Good Woman of Setzuan (1943), and Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg der Arturo Ui/The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958).

Brecht was born in Augsburg and studied at the universities of Munich and Berlin. He began his career as a writer after the end of World War I and first made his name with Trommeln in der Nacht/Drums in the Night (1922), an expressionist play which treated the well-worn ‘returning warrior’ theme in a new context. In the same year he wrote Baal, followed by Im Dickicht der Städte/In the Jungle of Cities (1924).

Meanwhile he was also writing ballads in the style of François Villon, and a collection of these, Die Hauspostille/A Manual of Piety, was published in 1927. This type of ballad was to become an important ingredient of Brecht's plays – The Threepenny Opera is a ballad opera. With Kurt Weill he also adapted his play Die Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny/Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1927) into a ballad opera. At about this time he wrote his Lehrstücke (1929–34), short experimental quasi-morality plays on Marxist themes.

Most of Brecht's mature works were written during his exile from Germany. He also wrote a number of vigorous anti-Nazi short plays and poems, collected in Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches/The Private Life of the Master Race (1945). In 1947 he was called to appear before the Committee on Un-American Activities, when he denied membership of the Communist Party, but soon afterwards left the USA. He went first to Switzerland, returning to East Germany in 1949 when he was offered a theatre in East Berlin. Sponsored by the East German regime, which recognized his literary stature, he was obviously intended to be a vehicle for communist propaganda. However, Brecht preserved his artistic integrity to the extent of becoming an embarrassment to the authorities, and his opera Lukullus was banned after the first night in 1951.

To perform his later plays, Brecht built up a team of actors, producers, and designers in the Berliner Ensemble, which included his wife, the actor Helene Weigel. The ensemble toured Western Europe and, under his direction, was able to fully demonstrate Brecht's various devices to destroy theatrical illusion. These included detached commentary, deliberate fluffing of lines, asides by actors to the audience, and so on, as well as the interpolation of ballads and cabaret songs.