Bertolt Brecht (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. Brecht's modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the 'epic form' of the drama (which constitutes that medium's rendering of 'autonomization' or the 'non-organic work of art'—related in kind to the strategy of divergent chapters in Joyce's novel Ulysses, to Eisenstein's evolution of a constructivist 'montage' in the cinema, and to Picasso's introduction of cubist 'collage' in the visual arts). In contrast to many other avant-garde approaches, however, Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to 're-function' the apparatus of theatrical production to a new social use. In this regard he was a vital participant in the aesthetic debates of his era—particularly over the 'high art/popular culture' dichotomy—vying with the likes of Adorno, Lukács, Bloch, and developing a close friendship with Benjamin. Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation to create a modernist realism that stood in sharp contrast both to its psychological and socialist varieties. "Brecht's work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg," Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also ‘Brecht’"—collective and collaborative working methods were inherent to his approach. This 'Brecht' was a collective subject that "certainly seemed to have a distinctive style (the one we now call 'Brechtian') but was no longer personal in the bourgeois or individualistic sense." During the course of his career, Brecht sustained many long-lasting creative relationships with other writers, composers, scenographers, directors, dramaturgs and actors; the list includes: Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, Slatan Dudow, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Caspar Neher, Teo Otto, Karl von Appen, Ernst Busch, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Therese Giehse, Angelika Hurwicz, and Helene Weigel herself. This is "theatre as collective experiment [...] as something radically different from theatre as expression or as experience."There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have not felt the impact or influence of Brecht's ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill. In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht's influence may be detected in the films of Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.During the war years, Brecht became a prominent writer of the Exilliteratur. He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays.
Frequently worked with Kurt Weill and Benno Besson.
He had five children: Frank Brecht (b. 1919), (killed in action, November, 1943, in Russia), with Paula Banholzer; Hanne Brecht (b. 1923)(Hanne Hiob ), with Marianne Zoff; Stefan Becht (b. 1924) and Barbara Brecht-Schall (b. 1930), with Helene Weigel ; and an infant who died shortly after birth in 1944, with Ruth Berlau.
His first wife Marianne was an opera singer.
Although he did not divorce Marianne Zoff until 1927, they separated in 1923. He got to know Helene Weigel shortly after their separation.
Spoke with a rasping Swabian accent. Thus, he recorded songs such as "The Ballad of Mecki Messer" from "Die Dreigroschenoper" (The Threepenny Opera).
Was twice posthumously nominated for Broadways Tony Award: in 1963, as author of Best Play nominee "Mother Courage and Her Children;" and in 1977, for his lyrics as part of a Best Score nomination for "Happy End," shared with Michael Feingold for his adaptation of Brechts words.
Studied medicine and worked briefly as an orderly in a Munich hospital during World War I.
His daughter Barbara Brecht-Schall currently holds the copyrights to all of his works.
Some of his most successful works are "Baal" (written in 1918), "The Treepenny Opera" , "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony" (1928/29), "Saint Joan of the Stockyards" , "Fear and Misery in the Third Reich" (1935-1938), "Mother Courage and Her Children" and "The Good Person of Sezuan".
His play, "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," in a Minnesota Theatre Company production at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California was awarded the 1969 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Production.
He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.
Natürlich muss die Wahrheit im Kampf mit der Unwahrheit geschrieben werden und sie darf nicht etwas Allgemeines, Hohes, Vieldeutiges sein. Von dieser allgemeinen, hohen, vieldeutigen Art ist ja gerade die Unwahrheit. Wenn von einem gesagt wird, er hat die Wahrheit gesagt, so haben zunächst einige oder viele oder einer etwas anderes gesagt, eine Lüge oder etwas Allgemeines, aber er hat die Wahrheit gesagt, etwas Praktisches, Tatsächliches, Unleugbares, das, um was es sich handelte.
Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes,Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is at their heels.
People who understand everything get no stories.
Corpses sour you. They are bad for objectivity.
EpitaphDen Tigern ertrann ichDie Wanzen nährte ichAufgefressen wurde ichVon den Mittelmäßigkeiten.
Why be a man when you can be a success.
The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.
Sometimes I see myself driving through hell with this wagon and selling brimstone. And sometimes I’m driving through heaven handing our provisions to wandering souls! If only we could find a place where there’s no shooting, me and my children—what’s left of ‘em—we might rest a while.
The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out "stop!"When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.
The war which is comingIs not the first one. There wereOther wars before it. When the last one came to an endThere were conquerors and conquered. Among the conquered the common peopleStarved. Among the conquerorsThe common people starved too.
The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.
Sin is what is new, strong, surprising, strange. The theatre must take an interest in sin if the young are to be able to go there.
Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.
Don’t be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.
Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.
Such a lot is won when even a single man gets to his feet and says No,Hatred of oppression still distorts the features, Anger at injustice still makes voices raised and ugly. Oh we, who wished to lay for the foundations for peace and friendliness,Could never be friendly ourselves.
First of all, they came to take the gypsiesand I was happy because they pilfered. Then they came to take the Jews and I said nothing, because they were unpleasant to me. Then they came to take homosexuals,and I was relieved, because they were annoying me. Then they came to take the Communists,and I said nothing because I was not a Communist. One day they came to take me,and there was nobody left to protest. Bertold Brecht, inspired by Emil Gustav Friedrich Martin Niemöller,Because things are the way they are things will not stay the way they are.
The mill wheel turns it turns forever though what is uppermost remains not so.
Intelligence is not to make no mistakes but quickly to see how to make them good.
Fearful is the seductive power of goodness.
Everyone chases after happiness not noticing that happiness is at their heels.
Everyone needs help from everyone.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
People remain what they are even when their faces fall to pieces.
Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.
When praying does no good insurance does help.
War is like love it always finds a way.
War is like love it always finds a way.
Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.
The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn when teachers themselves are taught to learn.
Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life.
Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.
No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.
There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
