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born 10 February 1898 in Augsburg died 17 August 1956 in Berlin |
| © Frankfurt a.M. 1952 (photo: Lie Brecht) Brecht-Weigel Gedenkstätte |
| 1917- 1919 | studies medicine in Munich; attends theatre seminars; military service as medical orderly; involvement in soldiers’ council during November Revolution |
| 1920– 1923 | attends rehearsals of Max Reinhardt in Berlin; “Drums in the Night” opens in Munich and Berlin; “In the Jungle of Cities” in Munich; “Baal” in Leipzig |
| 1924- 1927 | moves to Berlin, meets Helene Weigel; friendship with George Grosz, Alfred Döblin; collaboration with Lion Feuchtwanger, Kurt Weill and Erwin Piscator |
| 1928 | “The Threepenny Opera” premieres at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin to huge success |
| 1929– 1932 | marries Helene Weigel; premiere of “The Mother”; release of the films “Threepenny Opera” and “Kuhle Wampe” |
| 1933 | flees with family to Zürich after the burning of the Reichstag; settles in Denmark; “The Seven Deadly Sins” opens in Paris |
| 1934– 1938 | travels to London, Moscow, Paris and New York; completes first version of “Life of Galileo” |
| 1939– 1940 | forced to move to Sweden, then to Finland; completes “Mother Courage and Her Children” and “The Good Person of Szechwan” |
| 1941 | moves with family, Steffin and Berlau via Moscow and Vladivostok to Los Angeles |
| 1942– 1944 | meets German exiles in Los Angeles, works on screenplays such as Fritz Lang’s “Hangmen also Die”; completes “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” |
| 1947 | ”Life of Galileo” premieres in LA in English translation with Charles Laughton; leaves for Switzerland after being interrogated by the House of Unamerican Activities Committee |
| 1948- 1949 | moves to East Berlin, establishes the Berliner Ensemble; production of “Mother Courage” with Helene Weigel |
| 1950– 1953 | takes up Austrian citizenship; elected vice president of the German Academy of the Arts and president of the German PEN Centre; receives the National Award of the GDR |
| 1954- 1955 | Berliner Ensemble moves to the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm; editions of his work are published in East and West Germany; accepts the Stalin Prize in Moscow |
