Bertolt Brecht was a 20th century German playwright, poet, and theatre director who made important contributions to dramaturgy. He was born in 1898 in Augsburg, Germany and wrote plays such as The Threepenny Opera and Mother Courage and Her Children. Due to the rise of the Nazis, Brecht went into exile in 1933, living in various countries until emigrating to the United States in 1941. He left behind an extensive literary archive of over 500,000 documents now housed in Berlin. Brecht explored political and social themes in his epic theatre works which aimed to distance audiences and provoke thought rather than elicit emotion.

1. BERTOLT
BRECHT

2. WHO WAS HE?
• was an important playwright, poet and
theatre director
• lived in the 20th century
• made contributions to dramaturgy and
theatrical production

3. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
• born on 10th of February in 1898 in
Augsburg
• lived with his family in a big apartment
• father worked in a paper mill
• by age of 15 he produced the students
newspaper
• wrote most of the articles and published
them under an alias
• mother had cancer
• mother died in 1920, in grief of her he
wrote "Song about my mother"

4. EDUCATION
• volunteered in march 1917 for military
service
• studied medicine and philosophy to
avoid actual military service
• focused on the contemporary literature
• started military service in october 1918
• worked in a military hospital for a few
months

5. FIRST SUCCESSES
Münchner Kammerspiele (Munichs Chamber Plays)
• after being mentioned in an article, the
German Theatre in Berlin decides to perform
all of his dramas
• 1922 : awards the Kleist-Prize for "Drums In The
Night"
• 1924 : moves to Berlin; meets Kurt Weill and
invents with him the Epic Theatre
• 1919 : writes theatre reviews and features in
Karl Valentins theatre
• 1922 : "Drums In The Night" premieres at the
Münchner Kammerspiele

6. TIME OF EXILE
1920 1930 1933
February
1933
April
1933
May
1933
1936 -
1941
1941 1948
enters USANazis burn his
works; his
entire works
get banned
leaves with
family Berlin;
escapes into
different
countries
Nazis began to
disturb his
performances
returns to
Germany
lives in
Denmark and
Finland
came on the
"Blacklist"
police
interrupts his
plays; indicts
the organizers
became
communist
in the 1920s

7. WRITINGS
The Threepenny Opera
Mack the Knife
Robbie Williams Michael BubléFrank Sinatra

8. Mother Courage
And Her Children
Drums In The Night Life Of Galileo Man Equals Man
Rise And Fall Of The
City Of Mahagonny
The Caucasian
Chalk Circle

9. BEQUEST
• one of the most
extensive literary
bequests in the German
language
• more than 500.000
documents
• 200.000 of them are
handwritten manuscripts
• they are as an
permanent loan in an
archive in Berlin

10. MEMORIALS
His and his wife's
gravestone in Berlin
Memorial plaque at
the place, where the
house stood in which
he wrote The
Threepeny Opera
House in which he was
born in Augsburg

11. Walk of Ideas in Berlin:
Brecht is being mentioned with the most
significant german writers
Memorial in front of
the Berliner Ensemble