Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht 10 February — 14 August , known professionally as Bertolt Brecht , [a] was a German theatre practitioner , playwright , and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic , he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in , where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Kurt Weill and began a lifelong collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler.
Returning to East Berlin after the war, he established the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife and long-time collaborator, actress Helene Weigel. Brecht's mother was a devout Protestant and his father a Roman Catholic who had been persuaded to have a Protestant wedding. The modest house where he was born is today preserved as a Brecht Museum. Due to his mother's influence, Brecht knew the Bible, a familiarity that would have a lifelong effect on his writing.
From her, too, came the "dangerous image of the self-denying woman" that recurs in his drama. Neher designed many of the sets for Brecht's dramas and helped to forge the distinctive visual iconography of their epic theatre. When Brecht was 16, the First World War broke out. Initially enthusiastic, Brecht soon changed his mind on seeing his classmates "swallowed by the army". His expulsion was only prevented by the intervention of Romuald Sauer, a priest who also served as a substitute teacher at Brecht's school.
On his father's recommendation, Brecht sought to avoid being conscripted into the army by exploiting a loophole which allowed for medical students to be deferred. He subsequently registered for a medical course at Munich University , where he enrolled in From July , Brecht's newspaper articles began appearing under the new name "Bert Brecht" his first theatre criticism for the Augsburger Volkswille appeared in October In Brecht's mother died.
Some time in either or , Brecht took a small part in the political cabaret of the Munich comedian Karl Valentin. But the man he learnt most from was the clown Valentin , who performed in a beer-hall. He did short sketches in which he played refractory employees, orchestral musicians or photographers, who hated their employers and made them look ridiculous. The employer was played by his partner, Liesl Karlstadt, a popular woman comedian who used to pad herself out and speak in a deep bass voice.
