Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German playwright, poet, and theatre director, renowned for his development of "epic theatre." Born in Augsburg, Germany, he studied medicine before serving as a medical orderly during World War I. His experiences and disillusionment with societal values, particularly after the war, fueled his anti-bourgeois and Marxist leanings. Brecht's career flourished in Berlin in the 1920s, where he collaborated with composer Kurt Weill on influential works like "The Threepenny Opera." Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, he lived in exile in Scandinavia and later the United States, where he worked as a screenwriter. After World War II, he settled in East Berlin, where he co-founded the Berliner Ensemble. Brecht's work often critiqued capitalism and aimed to provoke rational self-reflection in audiences rather than emotional engagement, utilizing techniques like the "alienation effect." He died in East Berlin in 1956.