In 1928, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill are commissioned to write a play for the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, and they premiere The Threepenny Opera, which becomes a musical hit. Unfortunately, the popularity is short-lived; 1929 ushers in economic crisis, as well as the rise of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party—soon to be known as the Nazis. Brecht’s outspoken criticism of capitalism and authoritarianism earns him a watchful eye from various sides, but he continues to write his plays and theoretical works.
In 1933, Hitler and the NSDAP win the election; a month later, the Nazis burn down the Reichstag Parliament building in Berlin. Bertolt Brecht—having already been functionally blacklisted from publishing—decides to leave his homeland behind with his wife Helene Weigel and their two children. They would not return for nearly 15 years.
In exile, they move from place to place in Scandinavia, while the Nazi army encroaches further throughout Europe. In Finland, Brecht and his family wait for their American visas. During this time, Brecht writes many of his most famous plays: Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Ui (written in 1941) was crafted for the American audience in particular, and he hoped to showcase it upon their arrival. Brecht wrote Ui as a satirical allegory for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party, using real events (such as the Reichstag fire) to tell the story of the group’s growing power. Primarily, Brecht hoped to reveal the Nazis for who they truly are: power-hungry gangsters with no real desires but capital. He also exposed the German bourgeoise and large corporations (in the form of the vegetable dealers and the Cauliflower Trust respectively) for their support of the Nazis in the name of their own capital interests. Finally, Brecht receives papers to leave Finland with his family in the spring of 1941—virtually the last moment before the continent deteriorates into chaos. They travel via Leningrad, the Trans-Siberian railway for Vladivostok, and a Swedish freighter, finally touching down in Southern California.
Unfortunately, Brecht’s political leanings make premiering Arturo Ui more difficult than anticipated, in fact there will be no production at all until 1958 in Germany. In 1947, Brecht is interrogated by the anti-communist House Committee on Un-American Activities and decides to leave the USA right away. However, Brecht’s time in exile still proves fruitful; most notably, he writes The Caucasian Chalk Circle, five songs with Hanns Eisler, and works with Charles Laughton on Galileo Galilei.
Brecht and his family return to Europe; first staying in Switzerland, then finally settling again in Berlin. During this transitionary period, Brecht would produce one of the most famous runs of Mother Courage, starring Helene Weigel. After two years of living in East-Berlin, Brecht establishes a permanent company: The Berliner Ensemble, which remains a staple in Western theatre to this day.
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