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Chapter 12 - The Berliner Ensemble

from Part I - Brecht’s World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2021

By
David Barnett
Edited by
Stephen Brockmann
Stephen Brockmann
Affiliation:
Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania
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Summary

This chapter examines the Berliner Ensemble, the theater company Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel founded in East Berlin in 1949. It considers Brecht’s desire to create an ensemble to help realize the theoretical positions he had drafted while in exile and the difficulties the Berliner Ensemble faced in its infancy. These included a lack of theater space for a new company in the wake of the devastation of World War II and intense ideological hostility from the ruling party. At times, the problems encountered posed a direct threat to the BE’s very existence, yet it was the quality of its work that ultimately saved it and allowed it to thrive on the international stage.

Keywords

Berliner EnsembleGerman Democratic RepublicSocialist Unity Partypolitical theaterMother Courage and Her ChildrenformalismBrechtsocialist realism
Type
Chapter
Information
Bertolt Brecht in Context , pp. 105 - 112
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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