BERTOLT BRECHT: BIOGRAPHY, CHARACTERISTICS, WORKS AND PHRASES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2024

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a German playwright, novelist, director, and poet. He is recognized as one of the most important theatrical authors in Germany in the 20th century.

Considered the father of epic or didactic theater, his works are characterized by the great influence of Karl Marx's thought, as well as serving as a stimulus for social criticism.

Portrait of Bertolt Brecht. Source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-W0409-300 / Kolbe, Jörg / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Author of 30 theatrical pieces, as well as poems, articles on theater criticism, treatises on theater directing and film scripts. Among his works, Drums in the Night, Threepenny Opera, In the Jungle stand out, which were not only awarded and some admired by critics, but also aroused controversy and discussion around political reality.

Biography

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was born on February 10, 1898 in Augsburg, in the state of Bavaria, Germany. He grew up in a middle class family.

His father, Berthold Friedrich Brecht, was a Catholic who ran a small paper factory, while his mother, Sophie née Brezing, was a fervent Protestant. Through her influence she became so familiar with the Bible that it would be a latent factor in her works.

From a young age his artistic aspirations were evident. During his high school years he had published poetry and also a one-act drama when the First World War broke out. Although initially supportive, he soon voiced his opposition in a trial for which he was nearly expelled from school.

In 1917 he enrolled to study medicine and philosophy at the University of Munich, but ended up enjoying life on stage, mingling with bohemian groups and studying drama with Arthur Kutscher, historian and researcher of German literature.

In 1918 he was drafted into the army six weeks before the capitulation of Germany, at which time he served in a military hospital and was elected to the Augsburg Soviet of Workers and Soldiers.

Successful start

With barely twenty years old, Brecht had already authored his first masterpiece and several poems that would position him as one of the best in his country. His debut Baal had been the product of discussions at Kutscher's seminar.

His second piece in Drums in the Night (1922), received one of the most important literary awards of the time: the Kleist Prize for Drama. Although it should be noted that it was also the reason why it would appear on the Nazis' black list. The following year, In the Jungle sparked a scandal that further increased attention to her talent.

But it was in 1924 when he adapted and performed the play that would catapult him to be one of the world's most recognized playwrights, Christopher Marlowe's Edward II.

In 1928 Brecht drew on the story of The Beggar John Gray's Opera (1728) to make another of his great productions by the composer Kurt Weill, The Threepenny Opera, with whom he would collaborate permanently.

Epic theater and voluntary exile

It was in the 1930s when Brecht gave shape to the concept of epic theater. In parallel, his sympathy for Marxist ideas and the rise of the Nazi movement led him to commit more directly to the Communist Party.

With the outbreak of World War II and the arrival of Adolf Hitler to power in 1933, Brecht preferred to leave his country. He was voluntarily exiled to Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, England, and Russia, until he settled in the United States.

Stripped of German citizenship, he carried out anti-Nazi resistance and propaganda in a German-language newspaper published in Moscow, as well as with his literary works.

During this period he wrote many of his most recognized plays. She also developed some scripts for Hollywood, but she did not do as well as in the world of tables.

Return to Berlin and last years

In North America he was not entirely calm either. With the so-called Cold War between the United States and North America, the Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) followed him for his communist ideals.

Brecht and 40 other Hollywood writers, directors, actors, and producers were summoned to appear before the HUAC in September 1947. He initially refused to testify about his political affiliation, until he finally testified that he was not a member of the Communist Party.

The day after being questioned by the HUAC, he left the United States. He first spent time in Switzerland, but soon returned to Germany. He settled in East Berlin, where he could freely express his communist ideals.

Together with his wife Helene Weigel he founded a theater company, the Berliner Ensemble, with which he put into practice all his concepts and principles of epic theater.

On August 14, 1956, at the age of 58, one of the most prominent German playwrights of the 20th century died in the city of Berlin.

Characteristics of his work

Bertolt Brecht sculpture by Fritz Cremer. Source: Jörg Zägel

During his career Brecht developed original stories, but also transformed the works of other authors into modern interpretations. His works show the influence of Spanish drama, absurd satire, films, popular literature, even the narrative of the Far East and Elizabethan theater.

Unlike the dramatic style, Brecht's epic theater was slower and more reflective. He tried to avoid tensions and conflicts to facilitate meditation and analysis. It was opposed to what was proposed by other theatrical directors, such as the excessive realism proposed by the Russian Konstantín Stanislavski (1863-1938) or the maximum disturbance that the French Antonin Artaud (1896 - 1948) intended in the spectators.

His focus on argumentation and discussion sought to confront the audience, giving them a critical role in the socio-political situations he presented and turning them into "productive spectators." Also known as dialectical or didactic theater, it had purposes of social revolution and intended to awaken the collective feeling, through contradictions, humor or games.

He also fled to melodrama, manipulative arguments and identification with the character, known as catharsis in Aristotelian theater. For this she used scenic resources such as songs, prologues, gestures, music, scenery, which interrupted the narration and allowed the piece to be estranged or estranged from reality.

The audience then stops being involved in the stage action, sympathizing with the characters and experiencing their feelings, to become an observer facing a situation, which requires them to make decisions and act accordingly.

Another of his great contributions was the use of gestus, a resource inspired by Chinese theater. Brecht invited the actors to adopt a physical attitude or a gesture that allowed them to play the character without excessive emotionality and distancing themselves from the character.

In addition, it allowed an actor to play multiple roles in its pieces and frequently promoted the “breaking of the fourth wall,” a device in which the character speaks directly to the audience.

Published works

Theater pieces

- Baal (1918)

- Drums in the Night (1922)

- Man's a Man (1926)

- The Threepenny Opera (1928)

- Fear and Misery in the Third Reich (1935)

- Life of Galileo (1938)

- Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (1938)

- The Good Person of Sezuan (1940)

- Mother Courage and Her Children (1941)

- The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1941)

- The Good Woman of Szechwan (1943)

- The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1948)

Academic works

- Little Organum for the Theater (1948)

Phrases

1. Bertolt Brecht. (2020, January 9). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from es.wikipedia.org
2. MCN Biografias.com. (sf) Brecht, Bertolt (1898-1956). Recovered from mcnbiografias.com.
3. Bertolt Brecht. (2008, April 03). New World Encyclopedia. Recovered from newworldencyclopedia.com
4. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, January 10). Bertolt Brecht. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
5. Augustyn, A. (2019, September 05). Bertolt Brecht. Encyclopædia Britannica. Recovered from britannica.com
6. Bertolt Brecht. (2019, November 25). Wikiquote, Compendium of famous phrases. Recovered from es.wikiquote.org
7. Brecht, Bertolt. (2019, December 03). Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature. Recovered from Encyclopedia.com