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Our artists in exile:
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was born on February 10, 1898 in the medieval city of Augsburg, part of the Bavarian section of the German Empire. Married in 1897, his father was a Catholic and his mother a Protestant. Brecht was their first child and he was baptized as Eugen Bertolt Friedrich Brecht. His father, Bertolt Friedrich Brecht, worked as Chief Clerk in a paper factory and clearly fit the definition of "bourgeois." His mother, Wilhelmine Friederike Sophie Brezing, was ill with breast cancer most of his young life. He had one brother, Walter, who was born in 1900. Throughout his life Brecht was supported by his family, especially his father with whom he disagreed strongly concerning the bourgeois lifestyle. His father continued to provide financial support and a home for much of his life. Only one correspondence between them survives: a letter where Brecht begs his father to raise his illegitimate children.
Brecht was a sickly child, with a congenital heart condition and a facial tic. As a result he was sent to a sanitarium to relax. At age six he attended a Protestant elementary school (Volksschule) and at age ten a private school: The Royal Bavarian Realgymnasium (Königlich-Bayerisches Realgymnasium). Like most students, he was educated in Latin and the humanities, and later exposed to thinkers such as Nietzsche. He suffered a heart attack at the age of twelve, but soon recovered and continued his education.
While in school he began writing, and ended up co-founding and co-editing a school magazine called "The Harvest". By age sixteen he was writing for a local newspaper and had written his first play, The Bible, about a girl who must choose whether between living or dying and saving many others. He was later almost expelled at age eighteen for disagreeing on whether it was necessary to defend his country in time of war. By nineteen he had left school and started doing clerical work for the war, prevented from more active duty due to health problems.
In 1917 he resumed his education, this time attending Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet in Munich where he matriculated as a medical student. While there he attended Artur Kutscher's seminars on the theater. He despised many of his fellow students and took every opportunity to return home. By this time his mother was heavily drugged with morphine as a result of her progressing cancer. He started to write Baal at this time, a play concerned with suffering caused by excessive sexual pleasures.
Brecht's sex life is fascinating in many ways. He is thought to have had no less than three mistresses at any time throughout his adult life. As a child, the family's second servant, Marie Miller, used to hide objects in her undergarments for Brecht and his brother to search for. Through Brecht's poetry we are told that his mother used to smell his clothes to determine the extent of his sexual activities. By the age of sixteen he began to frequent a brothel as part of consciencious effort to broaden his experiences. Between ages sixteen and twenty he simultaneously pursued eight girls, including Paula Banholzer, the woman who gave birth to his illegitimate child in 1919. He is known to have experimented with homosexuality, often inviting literary and musically inclined males friends to his room on weekends in order for them to read erotic compositions. His diaries, although vague, make mention of his need for both males and females to fulfill his sexual desires.
During World War I Brecht briefly worked as an orderly in an emergency hospital before being released from service after openly expressing his lack of conviction for the war. He soon found work as a theatre critic for a daily newspaper, "The People's Will," before moving on to become a dramaturg in Munich.
Paula Banholzer gave birth to his illegitimate child, Frank, when Brecht was only twenty-one. At the time Brecht was involved with another woman named Hedda Kuhn. His mother passed away soon thereafter in 1920. A year later he took his second trip to Berlin and attended the rehearsals of Max Reinhardt and other major directors. In 1922 his play Drums in the Night opened in Munich at the Kammerspiele and later at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin; he received the prestigious Kleist prize for young dramatists as result. Brecht also entered into his first committed relationship, his marriage with the opera singer Marianne Zoff at the age of twenty-four. Their daughter Hanne was born the following year. In spite of marriage, Brecht had extra-marital affairs and spent very little time with his wife or daughter. In 1923 his two plays Jungle of Cities and Baal were performed.
After moving to Berlin in 1924 he met a communist Viennese actress, Helen Weigel. His wife Marianne moved in with her parents after the birth of Hanne, and soon she stopped responding to Brecht's letters. At this time he began actively pursuing Helen Weigel. At age twenty-six Brecht fathered his second illegitimate child when Wiegel gave birth to their son, Stefan. Brecht also met Elisabeth Hauptmann with whom he began to collaborate. Two years later Brecht divorced Marianne Zoff and in 1929 he married Helen Wiegel at the age of thirty-one.
Helen Wiegel gave birth to their second child, Barbara, in 1930. During this time Brecht was by no means monogamous. He was obsessed with the idea of abandonment, and as a result he abhorred ending relationships. The women in his life were important for his writing career, and modern feminist detractors often try to claim that his mistresses in fact wrote much of what he takes credit for. Although not true, women such as Elisabeth Hauptmann did write significant parts of The Three Penny Opera. Other mistresses included Margarete Steffin, who helped him write The Good Woman of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children, Hella Wuolijoki who allowed him to transform her comedy The Sawdust Princess into Herr Puntila and His Man Matti, and Ruth Berlau who bore a short-lived third illegitimate child in 1944. His wife Helen Wiegel was tolerant of his affairs and even warned other men to stay away from his mistresses on account of it upsetting him.
Brecht's writings show a profound influence from many diverse sources during this time and the remaining years of his life. He studied Chinese, Japanese, and Indian theatre, focused heavily on Shakespeare and other Elizabethans, and adopted elements of Greek tragedy. He found inspiration in other German playwrights, notably Büchner and Wedekind, and also enjoyed the Bavarian folk play. Brecht had a phenomenol ability to take elements from these seemingly incompatible sources, combine them, and convert them into his own works. His plays during this period include St. Joan of the Slaughterhouse, The Exception and the Rule, The Good Woman of Sezuan, Mother Courage and Her Children, Galileo, Herr Puntila and His Man Matti, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
In 1933 Brecht took his family and fled to Zurich after the burning of the Reichstag, later moving to Denmark. Brecht's German citizenship was revoked in 1935 by the Nazis while he was still there. In 1939 he moved to Stockholm as a result of growing Nazi pressure on Denmark, and in 1940 fled to Finland as a result of the advance of the Nazi troops. In 1941 he traveled via Moscow and Vladivostok to San Pedro (the harbor of Los Angeles). He was able to collaborate on his writings with many other German exiles in Los Angeles, including Thomas Mann. In October of 1947, during the McCarthy years, Brecht was called to appear before the House Committee for Un-American Activities in order to investigate the "subversion" of Hollywood. Although not an official member of America's communist party, Brecht left the United States for Switzerland the next day. He soon reunited with Helen Wiegel and they travelled to East Berlin in 1948 and set up the Berliner Ensemble with full support from the communist regime. In 1950, Brecht and Wiegel were granted Austrian citizenship.
Brecht experimented with dada and expressionism in his early plays, but soon developed a unique style suited his own vision. He detested the "Aristotelian" drama and the manner in which it made the audience identify with the hero to the point of self-oblivion. The resulting feelings of terror and pity he felt led to an emotional catharsis that prevented the audience from thinking. Determined to destroy the theatrical illusion, Brecht was able to make his dreams realities when he took over the Berliner Ensemble.
The Berliner Ensemble came to represent what is today called "epic theater". Epic theater breaks with the Aristotelian concepts of a linear story line, a suspension of disbelief, and progressive character development. In their place, epic theater uses episodic plot structure, contains little cause and effect between scenes, and has cumulative character development. The goal is one of estrangement, or "Verfremdung", with an emphasis on reason and objectivity rather than emotion, or a type of critical detachment. This form of theater forces the audience to distance itself from the stage and contemplate on the action taking place. To accomplish this, Brecht focused on cruel action, harsh and realistic scenes, and a linear plot with no climax and denouement. By making each scene complete within itself Brecht sought to prevent illusion. A Brecht play is meant to provoke the audience into not only thinking about the play, but into reforming society by challenging common ideologies. Following in the footsteps of Pirandello, he blurs the distinction between life and theatre so that the audience is left with an ending that requires social action.
Brecht received the National Prize, first class, in 1951. In 1954 he won the international Lenin Peace Prize. Brecht died of a heart attack on August 14, 1956 while working on a response to Samual Beckett's Waiting for Godot. He provided instructions that a stiletto be placed in his heart and that he be buried in a steel coffin so that his corpse would not be riddled with worms. He also left a will giving the proceeds of his various works to particular mistresses, including Elisabeth Hauptmann and Ruth Berlau. Unfortunately for them, the will lacked the necessary witness signatures and was therefore void. His widow, Helen Wiegel, generously gave small amounts of money to the specified women. Brecht is buried in the Dorotheenfriedhof in Berlin.
Friedrich Hollaender
Friedrich Holländer (1896 - 1976)
Even though he received a classical education, Holländer ended up writing music for cabaret.
In Berlin's vibrant cabaret scene of the 1920's Holländer was an important figure, known for his skills in improvising, composing and writing lyrics.
Marlene Dietrich insisted on him as a pianist in 'The Blue Angel' ('Der blaue Engel') and he ended up writing the movie's music as well.
Famous 'Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß' is just one of his many successful songs he wrote exclusively for the great actress.
Marlene Dietrich
December 27, 1901
Birth of Marie Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin-Schoneberg.
Parents: Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Elisabeth Josephine nee Felsing.
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1907 - 1919
School in Berlin and Dessau.
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1922
First stage roles in Berlin theatres, including the Grosses Schauspielhaus Berlin (director Max Reinhardt); first small parts in films.
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May 17, 1923
Marriage to Rudolf Sieber (1897 - 1976).
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December 13, 1924
Birth of daughter Maria Elizabeth Sieber.
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1929
First leading part in the film DIE FRAU, NACH DER MAN SICH SEHNT.
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October 1929
Screen tests and contract for the film DER BLAUE ENGEL.
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April 1, 1930
Premiere of the DER BLAUE ENGEL at the Gloria Palast in Berlin.
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April 2, 1930
Departure for America.
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November 14, 1930
Premiere of her first American film, MOROCCO.
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1935
After seven films together, parting of the ways with her director Josef von Sternberg.
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March 6, 1937
Became an American citizen.
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1944 - 45
Entertaining American troops in N. Africa and Europe.
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1950
The French government awards her the title of “ de la Legion d'Honneur”. She was later to be promoted "officer" by President Pompidou and “” by President Mitterand.
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1953 - 54
Appearances as show performer at the Hotel Sahara in Las Vegas and Cafe de Paris in London.
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1960
Publication of the book “ Dietrich's ABC”
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1974
Last cabaret/stage performance
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1975
Last film performance in “ A Gigolo”
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1979
Autobiography published “ nur mein Leben”
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1984
Biographical film “” by Maximillian Schell
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May 6, 1992
Died in Paris in her sleep; Services at La Madelaine May 10, Buried in Berlin next to her mother, May 16, 1992.
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October 24, 1993
Transfer of her estate effects to the State of Berlin and the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, assisted by John Block of Sotheby's (New York).
COPYRIGHT ©1996-2003
Marlene, Inc.
Lotte Lenya
Austrian-born singing actress Lotte Lenya is remembered for roles on stages and films in Germany and the United States (including Jenny in Die Dreigroschenoper and the Fräulein Schneider in Cabaret), as well as for her interpretations of the songs of her husband Kurt Weill. Born in 1898, she began training as a dancer in Switzerland, but after some acting lessons she moved to Berlin to pursue an acting career. She was introduced to Weill there in 1924, and two years later they were married.
Her first artistic collaboration with Weill was in his 1928 scenic cantata Mahagonny Songspiel, but she won international recognition the following year playing Jenny in Weill's and Bertold Brecht's Die Dreigroschenoper.
Weill wrote many more of his roles with her in mind, and she played in the original productions of the operas Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and Die sieben Todsünden before they left Europe to escape Hitler in 1935.
In the years leading up to their departure their relations became increasingly strained, and they divorced in 1933. By the time of their emigration, however, they had reconciled, and once in the United States they remarried. Lenya continued to act in her husband’s musicals, including The Eternal Road and Firebrand of Florence, and after he died in 1950 she actively promoted his music on stage and screen in both America and Europe. Her career flourished until her death in 1981.
In the 1950s she made a number of historic recordings of Weill’s music with Columbia Masterworks, which have been reissued by Sony Classical, including the complete Die Dreigroschenoper (MK 42637), the complete Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (M2K 37874), Die sieben Todsünden and Berlin theatre songs (MHK 63222), and an album of American theatre songs (MHK 60647). She also appeared on the original cast recording of Cabaret, recently reissued as part of Sony’s Broadway Masterworks series (MHK 60533).
Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang (Dec. 5, 1890 - Aug. 2, 1976), Austrian-American film director, was born in Vienna, the son of an architect, Anton Lang, and Paula Schlesinger Lang. Working first in Berlin during the silent-film era of the 1920's, and later in Hollywood, Lang used cinema to explore a personal fascination with, in his words, "cruelty, fear, horror and death." His film-making style is characterized by grandeur of scale, striking visual compositions and sound effects, suspense, and narrative economy -- including the minimalist techniques for enlisting the audience's imagination to evoke horror. A progenitor of the film noir of the 1960's, Lang was preoccupied throughout his oeuvre with the dark side of human nature: vengeance, violence, and the criminal mind. His heroes are brought down by injustice, bad women, or the iron laws of fate.
As a youth, Lang studied architecture for a while at the Technische Hochschule (Technical High School) in Vienna. At age 20 he left home and travelled throughout the world, including North Africa, Asia Minor, Russia, China, Japan, and the Pacific, support- ing himself by selling drawings, painted postcards, and cartoons. In 1913 he settled in Paris in order to paint, and he had an exhibition there in 1914. At the outbreak of World War I, Lang returned to Vienna and was conscripted into the Austrian Army. Wounded four times, he was discharged as a lieutenant and began writing screenplays while convalescing for a year in a Vienna hospital.
After the war Lang worked in Berlin with the producer Erich Pommer, as a script reader, writer, and eventually director of films for the Decla Bioscop Company, before forming his own film production concern. His directorial debut was "Halbblut" ("The Half-breed") in 1919, the first of many Lang films in which a man is destroyed by his love for a woman; in 1920 he married popular writer Thea von Harbou, who collaborated on his German screenplays.
Lang's first successful effort was "Der müde Tod" ("The Tired Death," 1921, released in the U.S. as "Between Two Worlds"), which inspired Douglas Fairbanks Sr.'s 1924 feature, "The Thief of Baghdad." It was followed by "Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler" (1922), a two-part portrait of a master criminal, and "Die Niebelungen" (1924), released in the United States in two parts, "Siegfried" and "Kriemhild's Revenge," based on the 13th-century Siegfried epic, and intended to restore pride in Germany's cultural heritage.
"Metropolis" (1926), a powerful expressionistic drama about a futuristic slave society, was a stunning technical achievement; despite its simplistic message it remains a classic. The production nearly bankrupted the UFA studio, and Lang formed his own product- ion company for his next film, "Spione" ("Spies," 1928). It was followed by "Woman in the Moon" (1929); and "M" (1931), starring Peter Lorre as a compulsive child-murderer. "M", the first German sound film, remains the acknowledged masterpiece of Lang's German period, and was his personal favorite.
"If Adolf Hitler had never existed," wrote the critic Andrew Sarris, "Fritz Lang would have had to invent him on the screen." Lang, who was not Jewish, used a madman in an asylum to espouse Nazi doctrines in the 1932 film "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse" ("The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse"). After it opened, he was summoned by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister, and invited to supervise Nazi film production. Instead, Lang fled Germany for Paris the same day, leaving behind a personal fortune and a vast collection of primitive art. In 1933, Thea von Harbou divorced him, and joined the Nazi movement. After making one film in France in 1934 ("Liliom," starring Charles Boyer), Lang signed a one- picture contract with David O. Selznick of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and moved to Hollywood, where for the next twenty years he worked in such various genres as thrillers, war and crime dramas, and Westerns.
Although naturalized in 1935 as a United States citizen, Lang retained for some years his monocle and a Continental formality of bearing. But he developed a strong penchant for the American West -- living for weeks at a time on Indian reservations -- and for American slang. His Hollywood debut, "Fury" (1936), a study of mob violence starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney, was a huge commercial and critical success. It was followed by "You Only Live Once" (1937); "You and Me" (1938); two Westerns for the Twentieth Century-Fox studio, "The Return of Frank James" (1940), and Western Union" (1941); and a series of war films, thrillers and melodramas, including "Hangmen Also Die" (1943), which Lang wrote in collaboration with Berthold Brecht; "The Ministry of Fear" (1944); and "The Woman in the Window" (1944) and "Scarlet Street" (1945), both starring Edward G. Robinson. The later films, mostly crime dramas, included Clifford Odets's "Clash By Night" and "Rancho Notorious," a Western starring Marlene Dietrich, in 1952; "The Big Heat" and "The Blue Gardenia" (1953); Human Desire (1954); "Moonfleet" (1955), a costume drama; "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" (1956); and "While the City Sleeps" (1956).
The distinctiveness of Lang's European and American periods reflects an extraordinary adaptation: to a new country, language, and studio environment, as well as to cinematic sound and color. Critics have never been able to reconcile the two phases. The early German films, which gained him a wide international following, were brilliantly innovative but self-conscious to the point of didacticism, relying heavily on interior sets, monumental architecture, and expressionistic devices such as painted backdrops and stylized action. The American movies, on the other hand, reflected a more mature style, and the resources (as well as the commercial influences) of Hollywood. Forced to make shorter, tighter films for a mass audience, Lang earned further recognition for his visual and thematic craftsmanship, but he chafed at the limitations of the studio system, favoring lower-budget films over which he could exercise artistic control.
A tall, physically imposing figure, and a perfectionist by nature, Lang could be a temperamental and dictatorial presence on the set. His differences with producers ultimately prompted his departure from Hollywood in 1956. He directed two low-budget films in India, and in 1959 returned to Germany, where he directed his final film, "The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse," in 1960. In 1963 he portrayed himself in the film "Mopris" by Jean-Luc Godard, released in the United States as "Contempt." Lang was awarded the French Officier d'Art et des Lettres. He died in Beverly Hills, California on Aug. 2, 1976, at the age of 85.
