When Brecht was 16, the First World War broke out. At first he was enthusiastic but Brecht soon changed his mind. To get out of fighting Brecht used a loophole and registered for a medical course at Munich University in 1917 where he studied drama with Arthur Kutscher. Brecht's first full-length play, Baal was written in 1918 in response to an argument in one of Kutscher's seminars.
Brecht's moved to America during the rise of the Nazi party as he was openly anti-nazi. This caused him to have his citizenship revoked. Brecht was very political and has a spoken against the events he had lived through and how the government where corrupted.
It wasn't until 1941 did Brecht gain American citizenship. Brecht however returned to Europe in 1947 and created the Berlin Ensemble.
Brecht's goal with his theatrical company was to cheer his audience up. Due to the horrible times that had over come Germany, Brecht wanted to give his audience an escape from the horrid reality. To do this he wanted to create performance where the audience would be entertained but they would not be emotionally attached to any of the characters. The audience should instead have to think about the performance they just watched and self-reflect.
He wanted his audiences to recognise social injustice and to be motivated to go from the theatre and try to change the world. For this purpose, Brecht used a number of techniques that remind the audience that the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself. These techniques are now used widely in the world of theatre.
These techniques include:
'It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk'- Bertolt
http://www.brechtsociety.org/images/brecht_exil.jpg
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