Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His seminal theoretical work on ‘epic theatre’ was key to shattering contemporary rules and aims of theatre.
Born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Brecht grew up during the Weimar Republic. World War One broke out when he was sixteen, but he avoided conscription by registering for a medical course at Munich university. Medical students were exempt from the draft. During his time in Munich, he also studied theatre.
Around 1920, Brecht took a part in the political cabaret of Karl Valentin, who became one of his main influences for the next few years. Brecht expressed continuing admiration and praise for Valentin’s work, which is characterised by dark humour and dadaism, an anti-bourgeois artistic movement. Around this time, Brecht became acquainted with the key figures of the contemporary Berlin cultural scene, including Arnolt Bronnen, with whom Brecht set up a joint company.
From fear of persecution, Brecht left Nazi Germany in 1933 after Hitler took power. He initially went to Denmark before travelling around and eventually settling in Stockholm in 1939 when war seemed imminent. Hitler’s invasion of Norway and Denmark spurred Brecht to move to Helsinki to await his US visa.
During the war, Brecht was an active and prominent writer of the Exilliteratur, a term encompassing German literature produced in the German diaspora by refugees of Nazi Germany and its territories. In keeping with the anti-Nazi sentiments of the Exilliteratur, Brecht’s most famous plays from this time, such as Mother Courage and her Children (1939), Life of Galileo (1943), and The Good Person of Szechwan (1941), display not only his hatred toward the National Socialist and Fascist Parties, but also his Marxism.
During the Cold War in the US, Brecht was blacklisted and interrogated by the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) on suspicion of communist and subversive activities. In 1947, Brecht testified that he had never been a member of the Communist Party, leading to accusations of betrayal. Brecht moved back to east Berlin in 1949, where he established his theatre company, the Berliner Ensemble, although he wrote few plays. He died in 1956.
Despite never being a member of the Communist Party, Brecht expressed Marxist and anti-capitalist sentiments throughout his life. He was schooled in Marxism by Karl Korsch, the Marxist theoretician considered a pioneer of western Marxism. Brecht received the Stalin Peace Prize in 1954.
Brecht’s leftist politics made itself manifest in his theoretical work on the theatre. His ‘epic theatre’ partly aimed to remind the audience that they are watching a play, creating a more active and didactic form of theatre. Stemming from the idea that regular theatre at the time was a bourgeois construct designed for the audience’s enjoyment, epic theatre made no attempt to hide its artifice. This is linked to the concept of Verfremdung, or the V-Effekt, in which something is made to appear slightly strange in order to enable political critique.
From a young age Brecht’s political views collided with his classicism. Following the breakout of WW1 Brecht faced expulsion from his school for writing an anti-patriotic essay in which he expressed dissent for Horace’s famous refrain dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (“it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”).[1] He termed this idea Zweckpropaganda, meaning cheap or calculated propaganda, conveying the idea that it is sweeter and more fitting to live for one’s country.[2] This attitude grew from watching his classmates become “swallowed” by the war.[3]
Throughout his career Brecht periodically turned to the classical world in his work. Perhaps the most significant example of this is his 1947 adaptation of Hölderlin’s translation of Sophocles’ Antigone. There are several key differences between the original tragedy and Brecht’s adaptation which create parallels to the contemporary political scene. In Sophocles’ play, the civil war began with the brothers Eteocles and Polynices battling it out for sole control of Thebes, however in Brecht’s adaptation the war is started by Creon because he wants to bring Argos under Theban rule. This allowed Brecht to depict Creon as a Nazi-style dictator and emphasise his inhumanity. Frank Jones describes Brecht’s adaptation as “a Leninist tract on imperialism, brought up to date by allusions to Hitler and his attack on the U.S.S.R.” [4] In his reworking of Antigone, a tragedy already packed with socio-political commentary and anti-tyrannical themes, Brecht adapts these elements to fit his anti-fascist and Marxist perspective. For example, as Matthias Dreyer points out, the divine machinery of the gods is replaced by socioeconomic conditions which are similarly changeable but result from human action. [5]
Brecht’s poem Questions from a Worker who Reads (1935) draws attention to the people missing from stories about famous monuments and historical events: the labourers. Through a series of rhetorical questions, Brecht constructs the argument that ordinary people should be given more credit and attention for their achievements. Many of Brecht’s examples are taken from the ancient world, such as the city of Thebes, Rome’s arches, and Caesar and Alexander the Great’s victories:
“The Young Alexander conquered India. Was he alone?”[6]
There is repeated emphasis on the achievements of leaders and kings being impossible without the labour of common people, which plays on the Marxist idea of the workers providing the backbone of society whilst remaining unrewarded by capitalist structures. Brecht’s collaborative play with Margarete Steffin The Horatians and the Curiatians (1934) retells the story of the Horatii and the Curiaces in Livy’s History of Rome 1.24-26. Again, the theme of the unrewarded labourer is present. To motivate a weary Horatian to continue in battle, the chorus reminds him:
“Seven labours amount to nothing, but if you perform the eighth and stop the enemy, you shall be acclaimed for eight labours.” [7]
This profile was written by Maeve Neaven.
[1] Horace, Odes 3.2.13.
[2] Werwie, Bertram, ‘The Embarrassing Mr. Brecht.’ Indian Literature 14 (1), 1971, p. 99-105.
[3] Thomson, Peter, ‘Brecht’s lives,’ in The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. p. 22-39.
[4] Jones, Frank, ‘Tragedy with a Purpose: Bertolt Brecht’s “Antigone”.’ The Tulane Drama Review 2 (1), 1957, p. 39-45.
[5] Dreyer, Matthias, ‘Caesura of History: Performing Greek Tragedy After Brecht.’ Performance Philosophy 2 (2), 2017, p. 241-256.
[6] Brecht, Questions from a Worker who Reads, ll. 14-15. Find the text here.
