Bertolt Brecht

German poet, playwright, and theatre director (1898–1956)

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Lived 1898–1956, aged 58Germany

Germany

WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
109 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Germany
#53
Writers
Era
1898–1956
Aged 58
Known for
The 3 Penny Opera
1931

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He made theatre strange on purpose — alienating audiences so they'd think instead of feel. Brecht wanted revolution, not catharsis, and spent decades teaching actors to break the spell.

Biography

About

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht came of age in Weimar Germany, finding early success as a playwright in Munich before moving to Berlin in 1924. There he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Elisabeth Hauptmann and Kurt Weill, began a lifelong collaboration with composer Hanns Eisler, and immersed himself in Marxist thought. He developed epic theatre and the Verfremdungseffekt — techniques meant to jolt audiences into critical distance. When the Nazis took power in 1933, he fled to Scandinavia, then to Southern California during World War II, where he wrote screenplays under FBI surveillance. Subpoe…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

said1949

First comes a full stomach, then comes ethics.

— Quotations from Die Dreigroschenoper using primarily the translation by Desmond Vesey and Eric Bentley (1949; 1960)

Bertolt Brecht

said1938

Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods.

— "The Popular and the Realistic" (written 1938, published 1958), as translated in Brecht on Theatre (1964) edited and translated by John

Bertolt Brecht

said1938

Those who lead the country into the abyssCall ruling too difficult For ordinary men.

— "From a German War Primer" ("Catón de Guerra Alemán", 1938)

Bertolt Brecht

said1937

Let nothing be called natural In an age of bloody confusion, Ordered disorder, planned caprice, And dehumanized humanity, lest all things Be held unalterable!

— The Exception and the Rule (1937), Prologue

Bertolt Brecht

said1936

The theater-goer in conventional dramatic theater says: Yes, I've felt that way, too. That's the way I am. That's life. That's the way it will always be.

— "Entertainment or Education?" (1936)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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