Katharina Thalbach "Elisabeth Hauptmann – im Schatten Brechts" x Harbour Front Literaturfestival Hamburg

Who knows Elisabeth Hauptmann?

Yet she is one of the most important—though still often overlooked—figures in German theater history. She introduced Bertolt Brecht to John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera,” translating and adapting the material. This gave rise to one of the most successful works in the history of musical theater: “The Threepenny Opera.” She also played a key role in works such as “Happy End,” “Man Is Man,” “The Yes-Man,” and “The Mother.”

An intense artistic and personal relationship developed between Hauptmann and Brecht. Historians differ in their assessment of her contribution to Brecht’s great successes, but her enormous influence on his work is undisputed. The romantic relationship between the two was complicated and, at times, tragic: When Elisabeth Hauptmann learned of Brecht’s marriage to Helene Weigel in 1929, she attempted suicide. Nevertheless, she remained closely connected to him throughout her life and, after his death, devoted herself to the publication and preservation of his work. In her will, she later noted that she had never been adequately compensated for her work as an author.

Katharina Thalbach’s play gives a woman the visibility she deserves—a visibility that was denied to women well into the mid-20th century. It is an exemplary story of female socialization, not only in bourgeois society but also far beyond it, even in supposedly progressive artistic and cultural circles. Thanks to Katharina Thalbach, this evening gives Elisabeth Hauptmann the visibility she should have been granted much earlier!

Katharina Thalbachis one of Germany’s most outstanding actresses and one of the last in whom the spirit of Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble still lives on.

Helene Weigel, Brecht’s widow, was her key patron.