Bertolt Brecht  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Bertolt Brecht (born February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) was an influential German socialist, dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century. He is best-known for such plays as Mother Courage and Her Children and The Threepenny Opera, as well as his only screenplay Hangmen Also Die.

Dramatic works (and screenplays)

Entries show: English-language translation of title (German-language title) [year written] / [year first produced]

• Baal (Baal) 1918/1923
• Drums in the Night (Trommeln in der Nacht) 1918-20/1922
• The Beggar (Der Bettler oder Der tote Hund) 1919/?
• A Respectable Wedding (Die Kleinbürgerhochzeit) 1919/1926
• Driving Out a Devil (Er treibt einen Teufel aus) 1919/?
• Lux in Tenebris (Lux in Tenebris) 1919/?
• The Catch (Der Fischzug) 1919?/?
• Mysteries of a Barbershop (Mysterien eines Friseursalons) (screenplay) 1923
• In The Jungle of Cities (Im Dickicht der Städte) 1921-24/1923
• Edward II (Leben Eduards des Zweiten von England) 1924/1924
• Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer (Der Untergang des Egoisten Johnann Fatzer) (fragments) 1926-30/1974
• Man Equals Man (Mann ist Mann) 1924-26/1926
• The Elephant Calf (Das Elefantenkalb) 1924-6/1926
• Little Mahagonny (Mahagonny-Songspiel) 1927/1927
• The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) 1928/1928
• The Flight across the Ocean (Der Ozeanflug; originally Lindbergh's Flight [(Lindberghflug]) 1928-29/1929
• The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent (Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis) 1929/1929
• Happy End (Happy End) 1929/1929
• The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) 1927-29/1930
• He Said Yes / He Said No (Der Jasager; Der Neinsager) 1929-30/1930-?
• The Decision (Die Maßnahme) 1930/1930
• Saint Joan of the Stockyards (Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe) 1929-31/1959
• The Exception and the Rule (Die Ausnahme und die Regel) 1930/1938
• The Mother (Die Mutter) 1930-31/1932
• Kuhle Wampe (screenplay) 1931/1932
• The Seven Deadly Sins (Die sieben Todsünden der Kleinbürger) 1933/1933
• Round Heads and Pointed Heads (Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe) 1931-34/1936
• The Horatians and the Curiatians (Die Horatier und die Kuriatier) 1933-34/1958
• Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches) 1935-38/1938
• Señora Carrar's Rifles (Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar) 1937/1937
• Life of Galileo (Leben des Galilei) 1937-9/1943
• How Much Is Your Iron? (Was kostet das Eisen?) 1939/1939
• Dansen (Dansen) 1939/?
• Mother Courage and Her Children (Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder) 1938-39/1941
• The Trial of Lucullus (Das Verhör des Lukullus) 1938-39/1940
• Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti) 1940/1948
• The Good Person of Szechwan (Der gute Mensch von Sezuan) 1939-42/1943
• The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui) 1941/1958
• Hangmen Also Die (screenplay) 1942/1943
• The Visions of Simone Machard (Die Gesichte der Simone Machard ) 1942-43/1957
• The Duchess of Malfi 1943/1943
• Schweik in the Second World War (Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg) 1941-43/1957
• The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) 1943-45/1948
• Antigone (Die Antigone des Sophokles) 1947/1948
• The Days of the Commune (Die Tage der Commune) 1948-49/1956
• The Tutor (Der Hofmeister) 1950/1950
• The Condemnation of Lucullus (Die Verurteilung des Lukullus) 1938-39/1951
• Report from Herrnburg (Herrnburger Bericht) 1951/1951
• Coriolanus (Coriolan) 1951-53/1962
• Joan of Arc (Der Prozess der Jeanne D'Arc zu Rouen, 1431) 1952/1952
• Turandot (Turandot oder Der Kongreß der Weißwäscher) 1953-54/1969
• Don Juan (Don Juan) 1952/1954
• Trumpets and Drums (Pauken und Trompeten) 1955/1955

Brecht in fiction

• Brecht at Night by Mati Unt, transl. Eric Dickens (Dalkey Archive Press, 2009)
• In The Lives of Others, a Stasi agent is partially inspired to save a playwright he has been spying on by reading a book of Brecht poetry that he had stolen from the artist's apartment.
• In the ABC Family series The Middleman episode "The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown", the show's title character quotes Brecht, "Hungry, man? Reach for a book. It is a weapon".
• In the 2007 film The Savages, the character Jon, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a theater professor working on a book about Brecht.