Bertolt Brecht was a German writer who had great success as a playwright. He developed a form of drama called epic theatre in which ideas, rather than characters, are important. Considered his best known play was Mother Courage and her Children.
Early Life of Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was born on February 10, 1898, in Augsburg, Germany. When he was 19, he enrolled to study medicine at Munich University, but was unable to pursue it as he was conscripted into the army.
At 20 he wrote his first play, Baal, which celebrates life and sexuality. At the height of World War I, his play was a contrast to the conditions of the time. His play was a great success and it established his reputation as a playwright.
At the age of 24, Brecht won Germany's main literary prize for his play Drums in the Night. Six years later, he wrote his most popular work, The Three Penny Opera musical with composer Kurt Weill. This was based on The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, an English playwright of the 18th-century.
Brecht's Plight to the United States
In 1939, he wrote the play Mother Courage and her Children, regarded by some as the greatest anti-war play of all time.
Bertolt was forced to leave Germany for the United States in 1941 due to his anti-Nazi political beliefs, in particular, as his plays tended towards Communist-based social criticism. In a way, it challenged Aristotelian concept that theatre was merely the imitation of an action. He settled in California.
Living outside his homeland, Brecht further developed his sociological ideas that clearly affected his plays. He believed that the capitalist method of wealth creation oppresses the poor. He used the theatre as venue to inculcate his ideas through his plays. At the same time, he also used a technique in way that the people don't get too involved in the drama. Somehow, his message didn't come out accordingly as he wanted.
Brecht's Last Years in America
In 1948, while still in the United States, he wrote The Caucasian Chalk Circle. The English-American playwright and poet W.H. Auden helped him translate it to English. This was also the time of the McCarthy era. Before long, the US government committee investigating activity in Hollywood started questioning him. Soon after, he left for Europe.
Bertolt Brecht married twice, first to Marianne Zoff, a Viennese opera-singer, and later to Helene Weigel, one of the outstanding actresses of her day. He died at the age of 58, on August 14, 1956.
Works by Bertolt Brecht
- Baal, 1918
- Drums in the Night, 1922
- The Threepenny Opera, 1928
- The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany, 1930
- Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, 1938
- Mother Courage and Her Children, 1939
- Poems in Exile, 1942
- Life of Galileo, 1943
- Mother Courage and her Children, 1939
- The Good Woman of Setzuan, 1943
- The Caucasian Chalk Circle, 1948
Sources:
- Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994.
- McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers / Harrap Publishers, 2002.
- Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997.
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