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Brecht's legacy

Anna Campanile 
 

'Either I will soon be entirely forgotten and swept away with the debris of history - or I'll be a classic.' Brecht's oft-quoted line represents his justification at the bar of history. It is debatable whether (as Max Frisch claimed) Brecht was being ironical, or whether he was pointing up the 'ineffectiveness' of the classics. Brecht has become an icon. His centenary year, 1998, ushered in thousands of related activities in Germany. A television series was produced bringing together many historical recordings of his plays. More than 60 theatre, television and radio plays, documentaries, interviews and readings helped to form a composite picture of Bertold Brecht the dramatist. 

A museum was opened at his last residence, 125 Chauseestrasse Berlin. The Brecht Archives and the Academy of Arts co-operated in developing a philologically-rooted exhibition which was shown in Berlin at the start of the year,  moving afterwards to Munich. '22 Attempts to describe a work' deals with Bertold Brecht's workshop; the exhibition shows how he worked, documenting his search for 'material(s) which prove useful in interpreting reality, and people with whom he can realise this work.' The exhibition also benefited from the first systematic examination of the archive holdings, which will also facilitate a new perspective on familiar works. 

1998 saw many of his plays produced on the German-speaking stage. During February around 23 theatres, from Linz to Berlin, included Brecht in their programmes. Classics such as The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good Person of Szechwan, Mother Courage and Saint Joan of the Stockyards were joined by less familiar plays such as A Petty Bourgeois Wedding, as well as by works resonating today such as In the Cities' Jungle. And someone placed a cigar on his grave in the Dorothea Cemetery - a smoke signal given in honour of  an unforgotten dramatist. 

Brecht has attained a place of honour amongst 'all-German' writers since the fall of the Wall. Indeed, even the state celebrated the birthday of this erstwhile Marxist nuisance, with President Herzog using the occasion to give an oration in the Academy of Arts. Augsburg, Brecht's birthplace, also honoured its prodigal son with a series of theatrical events, readings and lectures stretching over several months. The Brecht House was re-opened following a two-year renovation and is now the site of a permanent exhibition celebrating the dramatist's life and work. Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber of the CSU said that Bavaria should bring this writer 'back home': perhaps he was not fully aware that he was talking about an anarchist. After all, Munich was the scene of tumultuous audience participation when his early plays were performed at the start of the 1920s. Has Brecht, once vilified as a propagandist, become so unthreatening that he can now be allowed entry into Parnassus? As we celebrate his birthday, it seems that is the case. 

Coincidentally, the new management of the Theatre on the Schiffbauerdamm and the Berlin Ensemble (Brecht's most significant living legacy) has been the subject of debate in this centenary year. The theatre lost direction following the death of Heiner Muller in 1995. After long negotiations with the Berlin Senate and manager Rolf Hochhuth, it was decided in May to appoint Claus Peymann, who will move from the Vienna Burg Theatre to Berlin, assuming his new duties on August 1st 1999. Peymann intends to handle the Berlin Ensemble legacy sensitively and responsibly, thus once again facilitating socially-relevant theatre. It is 30 years since he last produced Brecht; perhaps he will do so again in Berlin. 

The last Berlin Ensemble productions of Brecht were by three very different directors. Heiner Muller's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (starring the legendary Bernhard Minetti in one of his last roles) was followed in 1996 by Mr Puntila and His Peon Matti, directed by Einar Schleef. This was a powerful production full of the multiplication factors peculiar to this director: the omnipotent ruler did not even share the language of his Brechtian model and was no longer engaged in dialectical conflicts with his peon-chauffeur. Matti was represented on stage by groups and vocal choruses. The egomaniac Schleef, who played Puntila himself, presented domination of the masses as a merciless addiction. 

The Life of Galileo was produced by B K Tragelehn, one of Brecht's former assistants. It was a difficult undertaking: Brecht was still working on the rehearsals of Galileo when he died in 1956 and was unable to complete the work. That work now seems to have been completed. Thus, the production today seems like a museum-piece despite the title role being played by renowned Bavarian actor Joseph Bierbichler. Even before this production, critics had criticised the Berlin Ensemble for their rigidity in adhering to their founder's model - a model which, to some extent, became a requirement of the productions. Brecht's heirs cherish his immutability and theatrical circles feel their strictures have militated against efforts to produce modern and relevant Brecht theatre today. His daughter, Barbara Brecht-Schall, is particularly insistent on seeing and controlling all productions and translations of her father's plays. As far as the Berlin Ensemble is concerned, she has even insisted on having a say in the appointment of directors and the casting of major roles. These production restrictions have been the subject of complaints for some time since they greatly inhibit the producers' artistic and creative vision. The result is that, despite the increasing number of Brecht productions, the performances no longer meet the needs of modern Brecht theatre. 

There are, however, exceptions. Robert Wilson produced The Flight over the Ocean with Brechtian authority by combining Brecht's very early technophile, optimistic text with Heiner Muller's stark vision of Landscape with Argonauts and Dostoyevski's Notes from a Blind Spot, thus incorporating Brecht into a panopticum of the modern age's fundamental questions. In this regard, the American director views his theatre work as a cross between radio play and silent film, using different means to achieve an alienation between (aural) text and (silent) pictures reminiscent of Brecht. This production rehabilitated the Berlin Ensemble in time for its founder's centenary. 

Many of the events mentioned honoured the writer rather than his work. Brecht's current publisher, Siegfried Unseld, organised a soiree in the Frankfurt Schauspiel which had more to do with public relations, while a performance in the Munich Theatre (with Hanne Hiob, Brecht's daughter from his first marriage) formed an addendum to the Berlin events. In recent years, even literary criticism has focused on Brecht the man. The most relevant example, of course, is John Fuegi's biographical treatment. Fuegi, an American, put the cat among the pigeons by examining the questionable authorship of Brecht's texts and advancing his provocative 'Sex for Texts' thesis. 

The debate has since turned to the stage: some theatres have attracted attention by addressing 'Brecht and Women' in their performances. Berlin's Deutsche Theater dedicated three evenings to Brecht's co-authors Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau, while Mulheim's Theater an der Ruhr included a project on 'Love, Women, Brecht' in its programme. The welcome inclusion of poetry readings on the fringes of such events ensured that some of the complexity of Brecht, who expressed himself equally well in poetry, came through on the stage. As regards the 'Woman Subject', his youthful poetry in particular, with its misogynist traits, also provided a welcome audience irritant. 

It is some time since Brecht has been read in a solely political context. Paradoxically, this presents an opportunity (at least, a potential opportunity) for the future, even in political terms. The way has been cleared for a new, unorthodox reading of his work unburdened by theory or ideology. One of the achievements of this centenary year was the completion of the very readable Comprehensive Annotated Berlin and Frankfurt Edition. It reveals one of the retaining walls of Brecht's oeuvre: the innumerable variants, versions, and reworkings of his plays; Brecht continuously re-visited and re-arranged his texts. He stood for the idea of historic mutability, taking it a step beyond the 'work in progress' concept. In this sense, he was a primarily a dramatist, believing that the re-working of his plays contributed to their effect. He had to change them in order to address current questions: 'A man who had not seen Mr K for some time greeted him with the words: "You haven't changed a bit." "Oh!" said Mr K, blanching.' (The Reunion, from Tales of Mr Keuner). 

The Brecht year is over. We have been enriched by numerous performances, retrospectives, re-workings, materials and volumes dealing with Brecht. Apart from the hype, myth marketing - and slight signs of exhaustion on the part of Brecht aficionados - it is as yet difficult to judge the result. The statement by Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann, in her 1969 draft anthology, still stands: 'Brecht is a very peculiar writer. He is already required reading, and has thus been silenced.' 
 

Anna Campanile teaches a course in Bertolt Brecht's poetry at the University of Cologne. 
 

Translated from the German 
by Alex Klemm. 

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Revised: 19/03/99