Bertold Brecht East Berlin 1954

Title

Bertold Brecht East Berlin 1954

Artist

David Lee Guss

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

"Eugen Bertolt Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 - 14 August 1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director of the 20th century. He made contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter through the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble - the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife, long-time collaborator and actress Helene Weigel.

This collective adapted John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, with Brecht's lyrics set to music by Kurt Weill. Retitled The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) it was the biggest hit in Berlin of the 1920s and a renewing influence on the musical worldwide.

The masterpiece of the Brecht/Weill collaborations, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), caused an uproar when it premiered in 1930 in Leipzig, with Nazis in the audience protesting. The Mahagonny opera would premier later in Berlin in 1931 as a triumphant sensation.

Fearing persecution, Brecht left Nazi Germany in February 1933, just after Hitler took power.

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: Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, and many others.

Brecht co-wrote the screenplay for the Fritz Lang-directed film Hangmen Also Die! which was loosely based on the 1942 assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi Reich Protector of the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, number-two-man in the SS, and a chief architect of the Holocaust, who was known as 'The Hangman of Prague.' Hanns Eisler was nominated for an Academy Award for his musical score. The collaboration of three prominent refugees from Nazi Germany - Lang, Brecht and Eisleris an example of the influence this generation of German exiles had on American culture."

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November 5th, 2016

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