Bertolt
Brecht was born in
Augsburg, Germany, on 19th February, 1898.
He studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Munich before
becoming a medical orderly in a German military hospital during the
First World War. This experience reinforced
his hatred of war and influenced his support for the failed Socialist
revolution in 1919.
After the war Brecht returned to university but eventually became
more interested in literature than medicine. His first play to be
produced was Bael
(1922). This was followed by Drums
in the Night,
a play about a soldier returning from war, Jungle
of the Cities
(1923) and A
Man's a Man
(1926).
In 1927 Brecht collaborated with the composer Kurt
Weill to produce the musical play, Mahagonny.
They then produced The
Threepenny Opera.
Although based on The
Beggar's Opera
that was originally produced in 1728, Brecht added his own lyrics
that illustrated his growing belief in Marxism.
He also worked with the composer Hanns Eisner
in The
Measure Taken
(1930).
Brecht attempted to develop a new approach to the the theatre. He
tried to persuade his audiences to see the stage as a stage, actors
as actors and not the traditional make-believe of the theatre. Brecht
required detachment, not passion, from the observing audience. The
purpose of the play was to awaken the spectators' minds so that he
could communicate his version of the truth.
Brecht's plays reflected a Marxist interpretation
of society and when Adolf Hitler gained
power in 1933 he was forced to flee from Germany. While living in
exile he wrote anti-Nazi plays such as The
Roundheads and the Peakheads
and Fear
and Misery of the Third Reich.
This was followed by Galileo
(1939), Mother
Courage
(1939), The
Good Man of Szechuan
(1941), The
Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
(1941) and the Caucausian
Chalk Circle
(1943).
After leaving Germany in 1933, Brecht lived in Denmark,
Sweden
and the Soviet Union. He arrived in the United
States in 1941 and after settling in Hollywood, helped with the
writing of the film, Hangman
Also Die
(1943).
In 1947 the House of Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC), chaired by J.
Parnell Thomas, began an investigation into the entertainment
industry. The HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood.
These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly
witnesses". During their interviews they named nineteen people
who they accused of holding left-wing views.
Brecht was one of those named and after giving evidence to the House
of Un-American Activities Committee, where he denied being a member
of the American Communist Party, he
left for East Germany.
In 1949
Brecht founded the Berliner
Ensemble and over the next few years it became
the
country's most famous theatre company. However, Brecht wrote only
one new play, The
Days of the Commune
(1949), while living in East Germany. Bertolt
Brecht
died on 14th August, 1956.
(1)
George
Grosz, The Autobiography of George Grosz (1955)
Another
of my friends was Bert Brecht, known at home and abroad for his chansons
and ballads, all written faithfully in the old style. Brecht was interested
in English writers and Chinese philosophers. He read Swift, Butler
and Wells, and also Kipling.
He dressed like nobody else in the circle, and looked like some kind
of engineer or car mechanic, always wearing a thin leather tie - without
oil stains, of course. Instead of the usual sort of waistcoat, he
wore one with long sleeves; the cut of all his suits were baggy and
somewhat American, with padded shoulders and wedge-shaped trousers.
Without his monkish face and the hair combed down on his forehead
he might have been mistaken for a cross between a German chauffeur
and a Russian commissar.
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