Brecht Collected Plays: 5: Life of Galileo; Mother Courage and Her Children (World Classics) by Bertolt Brecht Page A
Authors: Bertolt Brecht
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point in the arts. End of Utopian Expressionism; new concern with technology. Brecht’s first visit to Berlin, seeing theatres, actors, publishers and cabaret. He writes Of Poor BB’ on the return journey. Autumn: becomes a dramaturg in Munich. Premiere of
Drums in the Night
, a prize-winning national success. Marries Marianne Zoff, an opera singer.
1923
Galloping German inflation stabilised by November currency reform. In Munich Hitler’s new National Socialist party stages unsuccessful ‘beer-cellar putsch’.
1924
‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ exhibition at Mannheim gives its name to the new sobriety in the arts. Brecht to Berlin as assistant in Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater.
1925
Field-Marshal von Hindenburg becomes President. Elisabeth Hauptmann starts working with Brecht. Two seminalfilms: Chaplin’s
The Gold Rush
and Eisenstein’s
The Battleship Potemkin
. Brecht writes birthday tribute to Bernard Shaw.
1926
Premiere of
Man equals Man
in Darmstadt. Now a freelance; starts reading Marx. His first book of poems, the
Devotions
, includes the ‘Legend of the Dead Soldier’.
1927
After reviewing the poems and a broadcast of
Man equals Man
, Kurt Weill approaches Brecht for a libretto. Result is the text of
Mahagonny
, whose ‘SongspieP version is performed in a boxing-ring at Hindemith’s Baden-Baden music festival in July. In Berlin he helps adapt
The Good Soldier Schweik
for Piscator’s high-tech theatre.
1928
August 31: premiere of
The Threepenny Opera
by Brecht and Weill, based on Gay’s
The Beggar’s Opera
.
1929
Start of Stalin’s policy of ‘socialism in one country’. Divorced from Marianne, Brecht now marries the actress Helene Weigel. May 1: Berlin police break up banned KPD demonstration, witnessed by Brecht. Summer: Brecht writes two didactic music-theatre pieces with Weill and Hindemith, and neglects
The Threepenny Opera’s
successor
Happy End
, which is a flop. From now on he stands by the KPD. Autumn: Wall Street crash initiates world economic crisis. Cuts in German arts budgets combine with renewed nationalism to create cultural backlash.
1930
Nazi election successes; end of parliamentary government. Unemployed 3 million in first quarter, about 5 million at end of the year. March: premiere of the full-scale
Mahagonny
opera in Leipzig Opera House.
1931
German crisis intensifies. Aggressive KPD arts policy: agitprop theatre, marching songs, political photomontage. In Moscow the Comintern forms international associations of revolutionary artists, writers, musicians and theatre people.
1932
Premiere of Brecht’s agitational play
The Mother
(after Gorky) with Eisler’s music.
Kuhle Wampe
, his militant film with Eisler, is held up by the censors. He meets Sergei Tretiakov at the film’s premiere in Moscow. Summer: the Nationalist Von Papen is made Chancellor. He denounces‘cultural bolshevism’, and deposes the SPD-led Prussian administration.
1933
January 30: Hitler becomes Chancellor with Papen as his deputy. The Prussian Academy is purged; Goering becomes Prussian premier. A month later the Reichstag is burnt down, the KPD outlawed. The Brechts instantly leave via Prague; at first homeless. Eisler is in Vienna, Weill in Paris, where he agrees to compose a ballet with song texts by Brecht:
The Seven Deadly Sins
, premiered there in June. In Germany Nazi students burn books; all parties and trade unions banned; first measures against the Jews. Summer: Brecht in Paris works on anti-Nazi publications. With the advance on his
Threepenny Novel
, he buys a house on Fyn island, Denmark, overlooking the Svendborg Sound, where the family will spend the next six years. Margarete Steffin, a young Berlin Communist, goes with them. Autumn: he meets the Danish Communist actress Ruth Berlau, a doctor’s wife.
1934
Spring: suppression of Socialist rising in Austria. Eisler stays with Brecht to work on
Round Heads and Pointed Heads
songs. Summer: Brecht misses the first Congress of Soviet Writers, chaired
Drums in the Night
, a prize-winning national success. Marries Marianne Zoff, an opera singer.
1923
Galloping German inflation stabilised by November currency reform. In Munich Hitler’s new National Socialist party stages unsuccessful ‘beer-cellar putsch’.
1924
‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ exhibition at Mannheim gives its name to the new sobriety in the arts. Brecht to Berlin as assistant in Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater.
1925
Field-Marshal von Hindenburg becomes President. Elisabeth Hauptmann starts working with Brecht. Two seminalfilms: Chaplin’s
The Gold Rush
and Eisenstein’s
The Battleship Potemkin
. Brecht writes birthday tribute to Bernard Shaw.
1926
Premiere of
Man equals Man
in Darmstadt. Now a freelance; starts reading Marx. His first book of poems, the
Devotions
, includes the ‘Legend of the Dead Soldier’.
1927
After reviewing the poems and a broadcast of
Man equals Man
, Kurt Weill approaches Brecht for a libretto. Result is the text of
Mahagonny
, whose ‘SongspieP version is performed in a boxing-ring at Hindemith’s Baden-Baden music festival in July. In Berlin he helps adapt
The Good Soldier Schweik
for Piscator’s high-tech theatre.
1928
August 31: premiere of
The Threepenny Opera
by Brecht and Weill, based on Gay’s
The Beggar’s Opera
.
1929
Start of Stalin’s policy of ‘socialism in one country’. Divorced from Marianne, Brecht now marries the actress Helene Weigel. May 1: Berlin police break up banned KPD demonstration, witnessed by Brecht. Summer: Brecht writes two didactic music-theatre pieces with Weill and Hindemith, and neglects
The Threepenny Opera’s
successor
Happy End
, which is a flop. From now on he stands by the KPD. Autumn: Wall Street crash initiates world economic crisis. Cuts in German arts budgets combine with renewed nationalism to create cultural backlash.
1930
Nazi election successes; end of parliamentary government. Unemployed 3 million in first quarter, about 5 million at end of the year. March: premiere of the full-scale
Mahagonny
opera in Leipzig Opera House.
1931
German crisis intensifies. Aggressive KPD arts policy: agitprop theatre, marching songs, political photomontage. In Moscow the Comintern forms international associations of revolutionary artists, writers, musicians and theatre people.
1932
Premiere of Brecht’s agitational play
The Mother
(after Gorky) with Eisler’s music.
Kuhle Wampe
, his militant film with Eisler, is held up by the censors. He meets Sergei Tretiakov at the film’s premiere in Moscow. Summer: the Nationalist Von Papen is made Chancellor. He denounces‘cultural bolshevism’, and deposes the SPD-led Prussian administration.
1933
January 30: Hitler becomes Chancellor with Papen as his deputy. The Prussian Academy is purged; Goering becomes Prussian premier. A month later the Reichstag is burnt down, the KPD outlawed. The Brechts instantly leave via Prague; at first homeless. Eisler is in Vienna, Weill in Paris, where he agrees to compose a ballet with song texts by Brecht:
The Seven Deadly Sins
, premiered there in June. In Germany Nazi students burn books; all parties and trade unions banned; first measures against the Jews. Summer: Brecht in Paris works on anti-Nazi publications. With the advance on his
Threepenny Novel
, he buys a house on Fyn island, Denmark, overlooking the Svendborg Sound, where the family will spend the next six years. Margarete Steffin, a young Berlin Communist, goes with them. Autumn: he meets the Danish Communist actress Ruth Berlau, a doctor’s wife.
1934
Spring: suppression of Socialist rising in Austria. Eisler stays with Brecht to work on
Round Heads and Pointed Heads
songs. Summer: Brecht misses the first Congress of Soviet Writers, chaired
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