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Bertolt Brecht: East Germany
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Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg, Germany, on 19th February, 1898. He studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Munich before becoming a medical orderly in a German military hospital during the First World War. This experience reinforced his hatred of war and influenced his support for the failed Socialist revolution in 1919.
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Bertolt Eugen Friedrich Brecht was born in Augsburg, Germany, on February 10, 1898, where he ... spent the longest part of his childhood. His parents were Berthold Friedrich Brecht (1869-1939), a factory director, and Sophie Brecht, born Brezing, (1871-1920). He had a brother named Walter. He was a supporter of the communist philosopher Karl Marx and subsequently, he was deprived of his German citizenship in 1935. He had four children and his last wife was the actress Helene Weigel.
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Born in 1896, Bertolt (Eugen Berthold) Brecht became Germany's most celebrated and influential dramatist of the twentieth century. His depictions of homosexual desire are found only in a few of his earliest writings. In these works, homosexuality is often cloaked in ambiguity and almost always is tied to issues of power struggle, manipulation, and sadomasochism.
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Brecht was one of the most gifted children of the struggles that tore Germany apart in the first half of the 20th century. In a school essay of 1915, at the height of the First World War, he doubted whether it was honourable to die for your nation. His feelings were strengthened when he had to serve in the last months of the war in 1918 as medical orderly.
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Brecht was very threatening to the American government. The FBI files (1943-1956) say about Brecht, for example, “Subject is an author of revolutionary poetry and drama” writes the field agent on p. 21 of part 1. Brecht testified before the House Committee on Unamerican Activities on October 30th 1947 (part 4). Brecht testified that he is not now nor has he ever been a member of the communist party, in this or any other country. A field agent reports that Brecht’s writings in 1939 advocated the overthrow of capitalism (part 4, p. 8). Brecht testified (Oct 30, 1947) that his play Saint Joan of the Stockyards was banned in Germany in 1932, a play the FBI believed, “concerned the revolutionary overthrow of the American government” (part 4, p. 8).
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Brecht is often criticised for returning to East Germany after the war and working under the wings of the Stalinist regime there. In fact, exile gave Brecht first hand experience of the alleged “freedom” of the West.
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