Book about bertolt brecht biography
Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life
September 24, 2020
A really enlightening literary biography of one of the most influential theatre practitioners and poets of the twentieth century. Stephen Parker has successfully outlined the short life of Bertolt Brecht in this biography from his birth in Augsburg in 1898 until his death in East Berlin in 1956. What makes this book different from other Brecht’s biographies would be the scale of Parker’s research about Brecht’s health condition which heavily affected his creative process from his formative years during the 1910s until his death. While other biographies about Brecht put emphasis on influences of Marxism in his works as well as the importance of Epic Theatre, Parker tries to assert the view that Brecht’s health condition would be equally important to understand Brecht’s mindset.
Born in Augsburg on 10 February 1898 as Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, he will, in turn, change his pen-name several times from Eugen Brecht, Bert Brecht, before finally settled with Bertolt Brecht. Upon finishing a really good biography such as this, I don’t know which one should I praise more. Either it was Bertolt Brecht’s life which captivated me, or it was the way Stephen Parker as the biographer to successfully narrates the life and notable achievements of Brecht. Growing up in a middle-class household in Augsburg as the son of Berthold Brecht, he grew up as a kid susceptible to illnesses, with frequent complaints of heart palpitation. Just like her mom, Sophie Brecht, the little Eugen also experienced the condition which would force him to recuperate in the highland. During the span of his lifetime, he frequently fears the misdiagnoses of his condition by a bunch of doctors. This fear frequently haunted him, that he might be buried alive. Thus one of the instructions that he gave to his wife, Helene Weigel, was to ensure that he was, indeed, dead.
Brecht’s life could be described very well as a life sandwiched between the two World Wars. He grew up becoming a teenager during the First World War, even volunteered in the last few weeks of the War as a medical team member, as he was pursuing his medical degree at University of Munich at that time. After that, he came on age during the Weimar Republic, through his collaborations with several prominent rising artists such as Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. But this success proved to be short-lived, as he was soon forced into exile with the rise of the Nazis in 1933 after which he lived in several cities before finally settling in Svendborg, Denmark. However, it was during the ‘dark times’, as Brecht liked to term his exile years, that he finally managed to score most of his important works such as Life of Galileo and Mother Courage and Her Children.
This biography also describes very well Brecht’s love-hate relationships with authorities, both during his exile years in California in which he was forced to submit to House Un-American Activities Committee during the rising McCarthyism, as well as after his return post-World War II in East Berlin with the SED, the socialist party which fulfilled the Marxist-Leninist duty in the DDR. As a Marxist, Brecht would be labelled a ‘heretic’ by the hard-liners inside the SED, which presented many obstacles for him in establishing his theatre company Berliner Ensemble during the early years of the DDR regime. However, inside this biography, we could see the struggles of Brecht in defending his idealistic view of Epic Theatre as a way to advance socialist ideas, to engage audiences with his V-Effekt to create alienation from the characters and bring the audience to see the world as it is. His view was attacked by the SED establishment with the campaign against Formalism and the state’s support of Socialist Realism, as previously instigated in the Soviet Union.
What I particularly like about this biography is how it correlates with historical events spanning in the first half of the twentieth century. It was as though Brecht’s life could be defined through historical events that happened in his time. While Brecht lent his supports to socialist causes, the USSR, and the construction of a socialist state in East Germany, he still maintained his own freedom of thoughts, as we can see in his struggle expressed through his work Life of Galileo. Brecht was until the end, remained recalcitrant to the authorities, and in that way, we can see a figure who was filled with fiery idealism while still maintained a certain degree of independence from the Communist establishment and labelled ‘heretic’. I’ve run out of words to describe it, certainly one of the best biographies I’ve ever read. Thanks Methuen Drama for publishing this book :)
Born in Augsburg on 10 February 1898 as Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, he will, in turn, change his pen-name several times from Eugen Brecht, Bert Brecht, before finally settled with Bertolt Brecht. Upon finishing a really good biography such as this, I don’t know which one should I praise more. Either it was Bertolt Brecht’s life which captivated me, or it was the way Stephen Parker as the biographer to successfully narrates the life and notable achievements of Brecht. Growing up in a middle-class household in Augsburg as the son of Berthold Brecht, he grew up as a kid susceptible to illnesses, with frequent complaints of heart palpitation. Just like her mom, Sophie Brecht, the little Eugen also experienced the condition which would force him to recuperate in the highland. During the span of his lifetime, he frequently fears the misdiagnoses of his condition by a bunch of doctors. This fear frequently haunted him, that he might be buried alive. Thus one of the instructions that he gave to his wife, Helene Weigel, was to ensure that he was, indeed, dead.
Brecht’s life could be described very well as a life sandwiched between the two World Wars. He grew up becoming a teenager during the First World War, even volunteered in the last few weeks of the War as a medical team member, as he was pursuing his medical degree at University of Munich at that time. After that, he came on age during the Weimar Republic, through his collaborations with several prominent rising artists such as Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. But this success proved to be short-lived, as he was soon forced into exile with the rise of the Nazis in 1933 after which he lived in several cities before finally settling in Svendborg, Denmark. However, it was during the ‘dark times’, as Brecht liked to term his exile years, that he finally managed to score most of his important works such as Life of Galileo and Mother Courage and Her Children.
This biography also describes very well Brecht’s love-hate relationships with authorities, both during his exile years in California in which he was forced to submit to House Un-American Activities Committee during the rising McCarthyism, as well as after his return post-World War II in East Berlin with the SED, the socialist party which fulfilled the Marxist-Leninist duty in the DDR. As a Marxist, Brecht would be labelled a ‘heretic’ by the hard-liners inside the SED, which presented many obstacles for him in establishing his theatre company Berliner Ensemble during the early years of the DDR regime. However, inside this biography, we could see the struggles of Brecht in defending his idealistic view of Epic Theatre as a way to advance socialist ideas, to engage audiences with his V-Effekt to create alienation from the characters and bring the audience to see the world as it is. His view was attacked by the SED establishment with the campaign against Formalism and the state’s support of Socialist Realism, as previously instigated in the Soviet Union.
What I particularly like about this biography is how it correlates with historical events spanning in the first half of the twentieth century. It was as though Brecht’s life could be defined through historical events that happened in his time. While Brecht lent his supports to socialist causes, the USSR, and the construction of a socialist state in East Germany, he still maintained his own freedom of thoughts, as we can see in his struggle expressed through his work Life of Galileo. Brecht was until the end, remained recalcitrant to the authorities, and in that way, we can see a figure who was filled with fiery idealism while still maintained a certain degree of independence from the Communist establishment and labelled ‘heretic’. I’ve run out of words to describe it, certainly one of the best biographies I’ve ever read. Thanks Methuen Drama for publishing this book :)