Bertolt Brecht - his Poetry & Period - his Politics & Person
And I always thought that the simplest words
Would suffice. If I told things the way they were
It would rend the heart of anyone.
That you will go under, if you don't defend yourself,
Should be utterly clear to you.
Leaving Germany
World famous after the success of Three Penny Opera in 1928, Brecht left Germany in 1933, the day after the Reichstag was burned down by the Nazis. He left at a high point in his career as an avant-garde playwright for an exile that took him through Europe to Denmark, Sweden, Finland, across the Soviet Union and the Pacific to Los Angeles. He was 35 and did not return to Germany until after WWII in 1949.
Return to Europe
In late October of 1947, Brecht was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Commitee and questioned as to his allegience to the Communist Party. The very next day, he flew to Switzerland, where he worked for a time until he was formally invited to East Germany in 1948 with access to his own theater, a company of actors and unlimited rehearsal time. There he fashioned productions of his plays that made him internationally renowned. He died in 1956 at the age of 58, completely distrustful of the West, constantly embattled with the communist regime of East Germany.
Everything changes. You can begin
anew with your very last breath.
But what is done, is done. And the water
that you poured into the wine can not
be poured out again.
What is done, is done. The water
that you poured into the wine can not
be poured out again, but everything
changes. You can begin
anew with your very last breath.
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