German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer

Brecht developed a form of drama called epic theatre in which ideas or didactic lessons are important.

He rejected Aristotele's concept of catharsis and plot as a simple story with a beginning and end.

He wanted his theatre to represent a forum for debate rather than a place of illusions.

In his works Brecht has been concerned with encouraging audiences to think rather than becoming too involved in the story and to identify with the characters.

From the Russian and Chinese theaters Brecht derived some of his basic concepts of staging and theatrical stylization. His concept of the Verfremdungseffekt, or V-Effekt (sometimes translated as 'alienation effect') centred on the idea of 'making strange' and thereby making poetic. He aimed to take emotion out of the production, persuade the audience to distance from the make believe characters and make the actors to dissociate from their roles. Then the political truth would be more easy to comprehend.

Once he said: "Nothing is more important than learning to think crudely. Crude thinking is the thinking of great men."

Brecht's association with Communism began in 1919, when he joined the Independent Social Democratic party.

After 15 years of exile Brecht returned to Germany , Berlin, in 1949. Brecht had with the new authorities of DDR his problems, although he wrote prose that pleased the censors. In his verse Brecht cryptically expressed his suspicion about the regime. "What times are these, when / to speak of trees is almost a crime / because it passes in silence over such infamy!," he wrote.

To assure for himself freedom of travel, Brecht took in 1950 Austrian passport.

TROMMELN IN DER NACHT (1922)

DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER after John Gay´s The Beggar´s Opera, which Brecht moved the action to Victorian times, and instead of mocking the pretentions of Italian grand opera, he attacked on bourgeois respectability. Although rehearsals were disastrous, the audience wanted to hear over and over again the duet between Macheath and the Police Chief, Tiger Brown.

LEBEN DES GALILEI (1938-1939) dealt with the hero's self-condemnation for giving up his heliocentric theory in front of the Inquisition

MUTTER COURAGE UND IHRE KINDER (1939) was an attempt to demonstrate that greedy small entrepreneurs make devastating wars possible

DER GUTE MENSCH VON SEZUAN (1938-40) examined the dilemma of how to be virtuous and at the same time survive in a capitalist world

DER KAUKASICHE KREIDEKREIS (1944-45), demonstrating that ownership belongs best to those who can make humane use of it.