Ruth Berlau

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Ruth Berlau at her desk

Ruth Berlau (born August 24, 1906 in Copenhagen , † January 15, 1974 in East Berlin ) was a Danish actress , director , photographer and writer . She became known through her collaboration with Bertolt Brecht on various plays and performances.

Life

Copenhagen, Denmark

Ruth Berlau was born on August 24, 1906 in the posh villa suburb of Charlottenlund in the north of Copenhagen as the second daughter of the family. Her father Wilhelm Berlau, a German born in Flensburg, was a canning manufacturer and carpet wholesaler, and he also owned a hotel. The mother, Blanca Berlau, née Dehlsen, was an educated woman, spoke French and German very well and was interested in world literature. For a time she ran a French doll shop. The family was very rich and the parents were ambitious to give their two daughters a good education.

The older sister Edith studied law. Ruth attended a Catholic school run by nuns with the intention of learning French. She enjoyed studying and wasn't a bad student, but she dropped out of school at the age of 13. After a spontaneous engagement with consequences, the minor Ruth decided against the unwanted pregnancy. The mother ended the unhappy marriage with a suicide attempt , which the two daughters discovered in good time. You saved her life. Then Ruth broke off all contact with the father. She now took over the financial support of the family with various odd jobs such as selling coffee on the bike to working as a dental assistant.

In 1926 Ruth Berlau married Professor Robert Lund, a doctor and scientist, who was 20 years her senior. He brought four children with him from his first marriage. This marriage lasted ten years. Robert Lund supported Berlau's desire to become an actress, but also that his wife attended university events. As an apprentice at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, she took two years of acting lessons, directed by the director Per Knutzon. She was particularly interested in the subjects of speech lessons and theater history with Professor Torben Krogh. After the first year of study, roles in various plays followed, such as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream , as Christine in Strindberg's play Ein Traumspiel and Johanna in Bertolt Brecht's Die Heiligen Johanna der Schlachthöfe . One of her best roles was that of "Anna" in Brecht's Drums in the Night , staged by Per Knutzon.

After the dress rehearsal of her play The Women of Niskavuori, the writer Hella Wuolijoki wanted to get to know the young debutante Ruth Berlau, who so impressively portrayed "Martha". They remained friends until Hella Wuolijoki's death in 1954.

In 1929 Ruth Berlau cycled to Paris . The newspaper " Ekstra Bladet " was interested in exciting foreign reports for its readers and financed the trip. For the price of 25 ore per line, she described the boring journey as she “wanted to experience it”. A journalist who met her on the way wired her story and picture to the newspaper.

When she arrived in Paris, the local press had already announced it on the same day under the title “A Danish girl is coming from Copenhagen to Paris alone on her bike to buy a lipstick”. The young journalist with no experience was received with great honor and known overnight from Paris to Copenhagen. Encouraged by the great success and again for “Politiken”, Berlau rode his bike to Moscow in 1930 .

In her reports, she also wrote about the great international theater meeting that was taking place in Moscow at the same time. The readers didn't care and the editor-in-chief asked them to return immediately. Berlau did not bow to the request and stayed in Moscow for another three months. When she arrived in Denmark, she joined the Communist Party of Denmark and received the “red book”. From now on Ruth Berlau dedicated herself to the theater. She founded Denmark's first workers' theater, called Revolutionary Theater (RT), wrote and translated plays and directed it herself.

For her theater work, she quickly sought and established contacts with left-wing Danish poets, playwrights and writers. Her relationships with Otto Gelsted, his pupil Hans Kirk and Martin Andersen Nexø were particularly important and deeply formed . Otto Gelsted immortalized his friendship with Ruth Berlau with the dedication “Til Ruth” in one of his books.

Encounter with Brecht - work and love affair

Before she met Brecht, Ruth Berlau had gained experience writing a series of articles and was in the middle of working on her first novel “Videre” (in German “Weiter”). The book was published by Hasselbach Verlag in 1935. In the summer of 1933 Ruth Berlau went to the Danish island of Thurø on behalf of a student committee . However , she had only accepted the assignment to win the writer Karin Michaëlis for an event of the committee in Copenhagen when she learned that the German poet and playwright Brecht and his family were staying with Michaëlis after his escape from Germany.

Berlau absolutely wanted to meet Brecht, not only because she played the role of "Anna" in his piece Drummeln der Nacht . She still hoped to get advice from Brecht for her workers' theater , which was on the trail of epic theater à la Brecht. At lunch organized by Michaelis, she met the famous poet. He reported on a play that he had written based on Maxim Gorki's novel The Mother . Brecht continued the conversation with the young actress the next morning, during which he read to her from the “Moritat vom Reichstagbrand” and sang a few stanzas based on the melody for The Moritat by Mackie Messer from the Threepenny Opera. Brecht recommends that it is important for her theater work that she has a projection device. What he did not know, she already had one with which she recorded the performances of her theater and later made numerous recordings of Brecht, his family, friends and his productions. Her theater work was nevertheless very improvised, she did not have a stage of her own and the rehearsals took place in cellars and inns, and she also had to improvise a lot when it came to the choice of decorations.

On September 5, 1933, Ruth Berlau brought Brecht, Weigel and Karin Michaëlis to Copenhagen. In Robert Lund's apartment at Prinzessegade 18, across from Rosenborg Castle , she had organized a rehearsal for Weigel, Brecht and the composer Otto Mortensen , who was to accompany Weigel on the piano, for the evening event for newly enrolled students. In 1934 Berlau began translating Die Mutter . Otto Gelsted translated the songs. At the end of September 1935, rehearsals for Die Mutter began under the direction of Ruth Berlau at the amateur theater RT (Revolutionary Theater), with Dagmar Andreasen in the leading role of the mother.

It was the beginning of their intensive cooperation and love affair between Brecht and Berlau. Berlau's Copenhagen Mother performance was a model production based on the Berlin performance on January 17, 1932, of which she only had two to three photos per scene; later, their number was multiplied for the “model books”. Brecht and Weigel supported Berlau with the direction. The performance was played in autumn with a selection of scenes in the Borups Höjskole, in the student association as well as in companies and at party meetings. Berlau was proud of the use of their projection apparatus, with which clippings and photos from daily newspapers could make references to the scenes played.

Translating Brecht has always been a difficult challenge, even for the most experienced translator. Ruth Berlau accepted this challenge, however, and translated some scenes from the fear and misery of the Third Reich for her now much larger work theater. She bought a small farmhouse in Wallensbäck to meet with Brecht, who did not like staying in hotels. This is where Brecht's first of the “Lai-Tu” stories about “making fire” was written, which can be read at the end of the Me-ti / Book of Twists . "Lai-Tu", Ruth Berlau, was Brecht's student, he recorded her mistakes, educated and taught her: "Love is a 'production' and his relationship with it is shaped by the 'third thing'."

In July 1937, Berlau and Brecht traveled to Paris. Brecht regretted Martin Andersen Nexø that he had received too late an invitation to the II. International Writers' Congress in Defense of Culture, which began in Valencia on July 4, 1937 and was then continued in Madrid . In his place he sent Ruth Berlau to Spain and gave her his speech. Ruth Berlau flew in the plane of the political commander of the Soviet Spanish fighters Kolzow from Paris to Madrid.

By Egon Erwin Kisch recorded there in the circle of his fellow journalists and voluntary fighters Berlau went with him, Ernst Busch , Nordahl Grieg , Bodo Uhse , Erich Weinert u. A. on the fronts of the civil war . Ruth Berlau did not return from Madrid to Copenhagen as agreed. It seemed more important to her to help the Social Democratic MP Georg Branting, who headed a committee for the support of the Spanish Republic, "than to sit around in the still peaceful Denmark." Broken word, Brecht wrote several poems ( Kin-jeh said of his sister, Our incessant conversation, Kin-jeh's second poem about his sister ), which he included in the book of turns . In Kin-Leh and the student who left , Brecht said: After returning, "Tu" (short for Lai-Tu) was taken up again, "but the relationship never became the same."

In Denmark, outside of his language area and without employees, Brecht was left on his own for the first time. Without the tried and tested collective work, he could n't finish Ms. Carrar's rifles . According to Berlaus, the lack of employees was the real reason why Brecht had missed her so much. Berlau staged (with the assistance of Brecht) Mrs. Carrar's rifles . The first performance with members of her Copenhagen Arbejdernes Teater took place on December 19, 1937 in front of emigrants. The Aftenbladet wrote in a review of December 20, 1937: “The highly dramatic piece was presented excellently, shaped by the enthusiasm of these amateur actors as well as by the skilful direction Ruth Berlaus. Especially Dagmar Andreasen as mother played delicately and sensitively. «A second performance took place on February 14, 1938 as a charity event for the German students in the Borups Höjskole in Copenhagen. The newspapers were again full of praise and reported a successful performance.

In August 1938, Brecht worked with Ruth Berlau on her collection of novels, Every animal can do it , which came out in 1940 with the Danish title Ethvert dyr kan det under the pseudonym Maria Sten. Brecht wrote a foreword for Ruth Berlau's English Schwank Alle haben alles , in which he expressed his “sympathy for this type of drama”.

Brecht had meanwhile moved to Sweden , and his colleague Margarete Steffin supported Berlau in correcting the Svendborg poems . She sent the second correction to the typesetting shop in Copenhagen, after which Berlau published the volume with her own funds. Out of modesty and instead of naming himself the editor, Berlau had Wieland Herzfelde printed in with his Malik publishing house in London. Brecht then wrote to her: “Of all the people I know, you are the most generous.” Herzfelde later insulted her because of the “ugly” form of the edition, which did not correspond to that of the collected works .

Via Sweden, Finland and Russia to the USA

In 1939 Brecht moved with Weigel to the island of Lidingö in Sweden. To Ruth Berlau, who stayed in Copenhagen for the time being, he wrote the poem “I want to go with the one I love”. At that time she was playing at the Copenhagen theater and visited Brecht several times on days when there was no play.

In Copenhagen Ruth Berlau translated the fear and misery of the Third Reich and staged the play in her workers' theater. The play was still playing when Germany had already occupied Denmark . Sweden was neutral at the time, but it supplied iron ore to Germany and thus supported the Nazi armaments industry . In this context, Brecht and Berlau wrote the one-act play What does iron cost . Because German immigrants were fundamentally at risk, Brecht hid his authorship under the pseudonym John Kent.

With members of a Swedish social democratic workers' theater, Ruth Berlau began rehearsing for What Costs the Iron , directed and photographed the performance. Brecht supported them with the rehearsals. (Original photos of the performance are in the archive of Prof. Klaus Völker) On August 14, 1939, the play was performed several times in the adult education center in Tollare near Stockholm.

Brecht fled on 17./18. April 1940 from Sweden to Finland . In a letter to Ruth Berlau, he asked her to apply for an entry visa for the USA or, if that took too long, a visitor's visa. “Because from now on I'll wait for you wherever I go, and I'll always count on you. And I'm not counting on you because of you, but because of me, Ruth «. And for Lai-Tu: “She is given the task of taking care of herself and getting her through the dangers until our cause begins, the real one, for which one must save oneself. Dear Ruth epep Bertolt. "

Brecht turned to Henry Peter Matthis to help Ruth Berlau out of German-occupied Copenhagen by getting her an invitation to Stockholm . He worried about Ruth Berlau and asked Hella Wuolijoki in two letters to help her move. He felt “quite a responsibility for Ruth. Once the Nazi apparatus in Copenhagen gets used to it, it cannot possibly be hidden what she has done in cooperation with me. "

The entry visa that Ruth had applied for at the American consulate in Helsinki was initially refused due to her membership (since 1930) in the CP of Denmark. She had meanwhile been divorced from Robert Lund and could not and did not want to go back to him or to Denmark. The Danish consul Baek in Helsinki finally wrote a declaration to the American consulate: “This Berlau was married to Professor Robert Lund. She was an actress at the Royal Theater. She joined the Communist Party, but she is a parlor communist. In Copenhagen she drove around in a large Lincoln car and no one believed that she was a communist. People laughed at her. ”A short time later, she received the entry visa for the USA. After a stopover in Stockholm, Ruth Berlau arrived in Helsinki in mid-May (registered in a boarding house from May 20, 1940).

In the summer Ruth and Margarete Steffin stayed in the manor house of Helle Wuolijoki in Marlebäck. Brecht lived there with his family in a small outbuilding "between beautiful birch trees." After some quarrels with Helene Weigel, Berlau moved out of the manor house. She continued to work for him in a tent just a stone's throw from Brecht's house. Brecht recorded some of his texts on the refugee talks in Berlau's tent.

From May to July 1941, after the political situation in Finland became more and more threatening for the exiles, Brecht traveled with relatives, Steffin and Berlau via Leningrad to Moscow. Steffin was unable to travel any further because of her increasingly poor condition. She was housed in the Hohe Berge Sanatorium in Moscow and died there on June 4, 1941.

With the Trans-Siberian Express via Vladivostok , further with the Swedish freighter "SS Annie Johnson", Brecht traveled with family and Berlau via Manila to Los Angeles , California in the USA and arrived on July 21, 1941 in the port of San Pedro. For a short time, Brecht and his family moved into the apartment in Hollywood, No. 1954, Argyle Avenue, which was rented with financial support from William Dieterle . Ruth Berlau drove on to Los Angeles with some comrades she had met on the ship and rented a small apartment there. In addition to own capital of at least $ 1,000, which was one of the conditions for entry into the United States, she had a monthly allowance of $ 75 due to the divorce agreement with Robert Lund. He supported Berlau, maintained contact with her and visited her in Berlin until his death in 1962.

Until the end of 1941, Brecht worked closely with Berlau on the film stories: The Snowman and The Grass Shouldn't Grow Over it for a film with Peter Lorre and Bermuda Troubles (none of them were made into a film).

On March 29, 1942, Brecht wrote: "Arch Oboler received a radio play from Ruth Berlau about Norway's struggle for freedom, which she is now having broadcast under his name." When she complained about the theft, he was surprised, "That Ruth is not for defense wants to do «. Brecht noted: "Difference between making sacrifices and seeking sacrifices."

At the beginning of May 1942 Ruth Berlau drove to a congress in Washington, DC with a Quaker woman from Santa Monika, who advocated women's equality. She was invited by the suffragrettes who were already fighting for women's rights in England. With her topic “What does Nazism mean for women?”, She reports on how Hitler sparked a German housewife movement. Brecht was taken aback by her trip. And just like after her uncertain return from Spain in 1937, Brecht endured "the agony of a man at the side of an emancipating woman who reversed gender roles and made the man wait." confused by her unexpected journey; she has "really sometimes something from Galy Gay (from man is man )" about her, "who went out to buy a fish. And conquered the Himalayas. [...] How long do you actually want to stay? "

The Danish branch of the Office of War Information , informed of her appearance in Washington, offered Ruth Berlau to speak to Denmark over a shortwave station and wanted to reimburse her for the travel expenses back to New York . It was important to her that she was independent, that she earned her own living and that she took advantage of the opportunity "not always to be treated as an appendage by Brecht." She eventually got a permanent position at the Office of War, wrote radio reports and broadcast them to Denmark.

In New York, she and the head of the office Ida Bachmann rented an inexpensive two-room apartment at 124 57th Street, close to the skylines. She wrote to Brecht that "now she can receive him properly" to plan his trip to New York quickly. Brecht was affected by the new situation. In a letter he wrote that he was happy that she had a job, but protested against her allegations that he had not paid enough attention to her. »I always saw when you were treated badly and often did something about it, but what much should I be able to do when I'm no longer good with Helli? You are not allowed to speak of ›we-have-to-put everything-under-us-first‹. That kind of thing is terrible. "In November 1942, Brecht dissolved Ruth Berlau's Californian apartment and wrote to her:" Take typewriter tables, carpets, confectionery to me. "He didn't want to go to New York until he had more time," than just two weeks."

In 1943, Ruth Berlau and Lillie Laté were under the surveillance of the FBI because of a message from Georg Branting in connection with Hella Wuolijoki .

On February 12, 1943, Brecht arrived at Ruth Berlau's New York apartment on 57th Street. He hadn't come for her alone, because many of his political friends, collaborators and interlocutors lived in New York, such as Gerhard and Hilde Eisler, the publicist Hermann Budzislawski , who published Neue Bühne after 1933 , Hermann Duncker , Karl Korsch , who after the November Revolution from 1918 was temporarily Minister of Justice of Thuringia, and the trade unionist Jacob Walcher with Mrs. Hertha, a former secretary of Clara Zetkin and Kurt Weill . Not far from Berlau's apartment lived the poet WH Auden , with whom Brecht Webster's The Duchess of Malfi edited and translated for Elisabeth Bergner. Many well-known photographs by Brecht, taken by Berlau, were also taken here. During Brecht's stay in New York until May 1943, Berlau was also largely involved in the creation of the pieces: Schweyk in the Second World War , The Story of Simone Machard and The Duchess of Malfi . (Photos of The Duchess of Malfi by Ruth Berlau are in the Brecht archive.) Brecht was satisfied with her work. Back in Santa Monica, he sent RB a power of attorney for further business negotiations on his behalf.

In November 1943 Brecht went to New York again and stayed with Ruth Berlau until his return trip in March 1944. It was the beginning of their collaboration on the first drafts for Brecht's new piece The Caucasian Chalk Circle .

The head of the Office of War in Washington learned from the Danish Social Democrat Hans Bendix that Ruth Berlau had fought on "the wrong side" in Spain. And of all people, she had found him, the informer, for the position at the Office of War! Her employment contract and her roommate Ida Bachmann were terminated in the summer of 1944.

Ruth Berlau was unemployed. She tried to earn money with several odd jobs. "From the night bar to the organ grinder, from the one-legged humpback woman and a Chinese man dancing on the table to mopping rags and vacuum cleaners, Berlau got to know everything during this time." Appear "fatally up-to-date".

Ruth Berlau devoted herself increasingly to photography and acquired the basic knowledge of photography from the photographer Josef Breitenbach in a three-month photography course in private lessons. Both knew each other from the time of the Paris premiere of Frau Carrar's rifles in Paris in 1937, when Berlau used his performance photos as a kind of model book for the Copenhagen performance on December 19, 1937, and Helene Weigel also sent her pictures to him. He later took a photography course at Venice High School in Los Angeles. Entries in Breitenbach's pocket calendar testify to further meetings and the joint photography in June 1945 during the performance of Brecht's The Private Life of the Master Race . In July 1945, Brecht thanked her for the photos of the performance, of which he liked the ones best, where you can see the whole stage. He thought it was “great” that Ruth Berlau wanted to learn photography, “we can use it so well, especially for theater”.

In May 1944 she informed Brecht that she was pregnant by him. He was pleased and warned her that now she had to "be twice as careful". When Peter Lorre offered to live in his villa in Santa Monica, she took the train there. Ruth Berlau remembered that "Brecht was also very grateful for Peter Lorre's help."

On September 3, 1944, Berlau had to undergo an operation due to a tumor . Their son Michel was born prematurely and only survived a few days. In his journal, Brecht noted: »3. September 44 Ruth is operated on in Cedars of Lebanon "and" I paid 40 dollars for Michel's urn, it says: Michel Berlau. "Peter Lorre paid the hospital costs and invited her to his house again to relax. The photos and film recordings handed down from this period attest to Berlaus' desire to return to normal quickly, as well as her photographic professionalism.

In December 1944, Brecht noted that he »... also decided to conduct photographic experiments with R. [Ruth] to create an archive of my work. Countless attempts, in which even Reichenbach once supported us. «In doing so, Brecht was looking for a way to transport his work easily and compactly. At the time he was working on the god of luck , a topic that was not yet planned as an opera at the time . Brecht brought the figure from the Chinese quarter of LA for 40 cents, and it can be seen as the first motif on Berlaus' first photo film. At the same time, Brecht was working on the constitution of the Communist Manifesto. Every time Brecht made numerous corrections, Berlau photographed the manuscript anew.

Ruth Berlau was still observed by FBI informants at her whereabouts. She is said to have been in possession of a “third person” note, which was “translated into English and has not survived”, according to which Brecht collected material about Rosa Luxemburg .

At Brecht's request, Berlau drove back from Los Angeles to New York in March 1945. The FBI registered details of her belongings, including six containers of photographic equipment, an extensive collection of copied poems and files, and ordered the timely installation of a wiretapping system in her New York apartment.

Alone again in New York, Berlau entered into an intimate relationship with a Danish sailor and wished for a distance from Brecht. On December 2, 1945, Brecht noted: "Call Ruth at night and hear something unfavorable." When he called, he learned from her that she felt "free" from B.

During the Christmas season of 1945, Berlau suffered a nervous breakdown . At that time, Ida Bachmann was in the apartment with her and wrote to Brecht in detail about Berlaus' condition. “Since Berlau came to NY from California, she has been in an extremely bad physical condition, with very hard work and little rest. ... Whenever you've seen Ruth Berlau's apartment - on the bed, on the floor, on the table, in the typewriter, carefully numbered pages of Brecht's manuscripts lay everywhere. The photocopies of them lay in the bathtub. Since they had so little money, Ruth's apartment was used as a publishing house and copier. ”At the instigation of Dr. Gruenthal, Peter Lorre's personal physician, Ruth Berlau was taken to Bellevue Hospital on December 31, 1945 and from there transferred to the closed mental hospital in Amityville on Long Island . There it was only accepted through references from Paul Czinner and Elisabeth Bergner. Ida Bachmann wrote that Berlau had been treated with electric shocks until March 1946 , "but wanted to go home as soon as possible." As a result of the electric shocks, Berlau could no longer remember the duration of the treatment and when she had left the mental hospital. After her recovery, about three months later, she moved to California and lived in Pacific Palisades at the house of a friend she knew well from the Norwegian section of the New York War Information Bureau.

At that time, Brecht was working intensively with Charles Laughton on the American version of the Life of Galileo . Berlau was also included in the once-proven collaboration. She translated between Laughton, who did not speak a word of German, and Brecht, who played half German and half English gestures, and took photos on Brecht's behalf. Her work often only ended at night in the darkroom, where she developed and enlarged the recordings so that they were on Brecht's table for rehearsals the next morning. “The tasks were so interesting, she later recalled, that they were taken on voluntarily, because Brecht never forced or even asked anyone to do it. On the contrary, he kept saying, you've worked so hard now. But if he politely asked where are the pictures you took yesterday, then of course they were there, otherwise Brecht would not have been able to continue working. "

The premiere of Galileo at the Coronet Theater in Beverly Hills took place on July 30, 1947. Brecht summed up the performance in a letter to Ferdinand Reiher: “The stage and performance were definitely reminiscent of the Schiffbauerdammtheater in Berlin, as did the intellectual part of the audience. Ruth photographed and filmed everything, so they can get by in NY without me. «After the interrogation by the Congress Committee on Un-American Issues, Brecht flew to Zurich via Paris. From then on, director Joseph Losey took over the preparatory work for the New York premiere . Ruth Berlau documented every change by Losey and Laughton that they wanted to introduce to Brecht's performance in Hollywood with the Leica and a 16 mm cine camera. As the changes continued, Berlau asked “Laughton to inform Brecht himself and write a letter to him.” After Laughton refused to write to Brecht, Berlau convinced him to “discuss records and tell Brecht what he was doing changes and why. These records (shellac records, HH) still exist. "

Ruth Berlau has received 3000 photos of Galileo and the silent film of the same name, taken in the Coronet Theater Hollywood in August 1947, some color photos , a series of colored slides from the New Yorkers and “colored plates” from the Californian performance, which are »an absolute rarity: because of their colourfulness. «Former proof of their hard work and professionalism, independence and willingness to experiment. Years later, in October 1955, Brecht was to recognize the importance of the color recordings and thank Berlau for the films "and the colored plates" of the Californian production of Galileo . "That will help us tremendously." And in December 1955 he wrote to her, "Her color slides from the New York performance of Galileo would be helpful for the costumes."

Back to Europe

After his arrival in Zurich, Brecht wrote a detailed letter to Berlau. “Not an apartment yet, but tomorrow I'm moving into the currently free studio of a dramaturge at the Schauspielhaus so I don't have to stay in the hotel. Maybe we should go to Italy as soon as possible? But first I want to arrange something for Helli at the Schauspielhaus. ”In the letter he asked about the Galileo rehearsals, thanked him for the photos she had sent him and that he absolutely needed a car. Switzerland is expensive, its financial situation, "whether you are rich and poor", will only be known after the Galileo premiere. After the New York premiere of Galileo, Ruth arranged all the formalities necessary for the departure to Europe and traveled to Switzerland with a box of cigars for Brecht and all of her photographic equipment. RB arrived in Zurich on January 22, 1948, and Brecht came to see her that same evening. They started work without any transition. Because Brecht and Neher were right in the middle of the production of Antigone . Berlau's first task was to bring Casper Neher's sketches with arrangement, posture, gestures, decoration designs and costumes onto film material.

On February 5, 1948, Berlau took part in the first rehearsal in Chur and recalled, “For the first time I saw what directing means for Brecht. I was fascinated by how much fun Brecht tasted the Antigone . Everything developed without hectic, although there was not much time available, amusing, polite, full of readiness for precise work. Helene Weigel was in a good mood and very graceful. «Brecht agreed with Hans Curjel , the director and producer of the Chur theater, the exclusive rights to Berlau's recordings of Antigone during the rehearsals and the performance .

On February 15, 1948, the premiere of Antigone des Sophocles took place in Chur. Immediately afterwards, Brecht and Berlau began to produce the antigone model in 1948 . The Gebrüder Weiss Verlag , Berlin, published the book without much success, because Weiss only got the last photos from Ruth shortly before he left Zurich. In addition, in 1948 he did not have good paper for reproduction. Ruth Berlau remembered her enormous work, »The photos that I have given you here (the model book) of a Brecht-Neher-Weigel collaboration are only a small selection from two thousand photos. In the archive we have successful color photographs (colored slides, HH) that show the beauty of the decoration and the costumes. «Brecht wrote about the creation of the models,» The first attempt to use models of epic theater was made by R. Berlau in Copenhagen undertook. She used photographs of earlier performances for Die Mutter and Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar with the popular actress Dagmar Andreasen ( Carrar, Paris 1937; Die Mutter, 1932, Berlin, HH). "

The Antigonemodell was the only manuscript that Brecht was able to sell in Switzerland, although he negotiated with many publishers. In order to improve her own financial situation, Berlau continued to write for reactionary papers.

Mr. Puntila and his servant Matti von Brecht, based on stories by the Finnish writer Hella Wuolijoki , was premiered on June 5, 1948 in the Schauspielhaus Zurich. RB was again given the task by Brecht of documenting the rehearsals and the performance with photographs. Later, when Brecht judged the photos of other photographers, he automatically compared them with those of Berlaus and clearly stated the difference. »... the photos I got (from Hofmeister) show what one could do, i. H. with the light as it is. But they are strangely unpoetic and you almost always lack that special, individual eye that yours have. It's just not a mechanical thing. "

Blandine Ebinger , who had taken on the role of the pharmacist's maid in Mr. Puntila and his servant Matti, described a rehearsal that clearly shows how Brecht appreciated the direction of his colleague Berlau. “The next day we had a rehearsal. The evening before it had bothered me that a friend of Brecht's, Ms. B., was always taking pictures. As soon as you had something important to say - click! - came this fine sound. It finally stopped. ... So we spoke our text, and Brecht called from below that I should adopt a certain attitude. I was upset because of the annoying snapping and - only changed my posture a little. Brecht was annoyed. Ms. B. wanted me to put a headscarf on in a special way. I was just doing it carelessly, but that was not what she wanted. Brecht was so irritated that he had a fit of anger and uttered a flood of insulting words. Among other things, he advised me to go back to drama school. «In the work journal 1942–1955, Brecht noted on June 10, 1948 about the premiere of Puntila and his servant Matti et al. »It is more difficult than with the actors with the outdated lighting equipment, with which the stage cannot be illuminated evenly so that you then have to illuminate the faces with spotlights; The photos taken by Ruth during the performance show how the headlights literally fade out the faces, which makes watching exhausting. «There is only this Brecht note, with which Ruth Berlau is the only one responsible for the photos of Puntila and his servant Matti, in the Schauspielhaus Zurich confirmed, as well as that their photo and film material was in his possession.

Ruth Berlau answered the question of whether it is even possible to capture a drama or a play photographically in her Notaten The Truth is Concrete. » Direction, acting, decoration, costumes - yes, but a drama? Yes, you can. If you take photos of the movement, I claim, it is possible, especially when it comes to epic plays, epic directing and epic performance. ”This expresses the way in which she documented the actors' movements on stage with series shots.

Since Brecht did not get an entry permit for the American zone of Germany, Ruth Berlau went to Munich for several months on his behalf in August 1948. She still had a journalist ID from the Americans and could not only travel around freely with it, but also live in the Munich press center. This also gave her the advantage of an uncensored, fast postal connection and was able to make calls to Zurich, which Germans were not allowed to do at the time. On behalf of Brecht, she got in touch with Erich Engel and Brecht's friend Jakob Geis, negotiated with the Munich publisher Kurt Desch »(and through him to get a car for Brecht), and about a performance of Puntila and his servant Matti (with Fritz Kortner) in Munich. «During this time Ruth Berlau also took part in the Nuremberg Trial, reporting to Danish newspapers in order to earn money.

East Berlin terminus

In October 1948 Ruth Berlau met Brecht and Weigel at the Hotel Adlon in the eastern part of Berlin. From there they began negotiations to found their own theater, which is now known as the Berliner Ensemble . It was not until 1954 that Brecht was able to take over his “ship” and opened it - strangely enough (RB) - not with his own play, but with Molière's Don Juan , directed by Benno Besson . The artistic director Wolfgang Langhoff immediately accepted Brecht's suggestion to stage Mother Courage and her children in the Deutsches Theater .

The premiere of Mother Courage and Her Children took place on January 11, 1949 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and is described as "the most significant theater event since 1945" (Fritz Erpenbeck, Vorwärts, January 13) and "a clear political commitment"  (Wolfgang Heise, Die Grandstand, 13.1) praised. Brecht had Ruth Berlau document the Berlin performance in several hundred photos and his assistant director Heinz Kuckhahn put together numerous directors 'notes into a bundle of director's notes on Bertolt Brecht's chronicle from the Thirty Years' War "Mother Courage and Her Children" . Brecht saw this documentation as a director's score , a basis for the later model book of the piece.

At the beginning of March 1949, Berlau and Brecht traveled to Zurich again to find staff for the Berlin theater project for the period from November 1, 1949 to February 1, 1950. Brecht's daughter Barbara traveled with them. Von Brecht, who was working on the Paris Commune at the time - the planned title "The Days of the Commune" - included Berlau. She recalled: "My work consisted less of studying the history of the Communards - Brecht knew that, of course - but rather working with him to find out what conclusions had to be drawn from the Communards' defeat." with Brecht and daughter Barbara, Berlau photographed the masks and made numerous series of shots of encounters with friends Max Frisch , Fritz Kortner and Caspar Neher.

Back in Germany, RB arrived in Wuppertal on June 30, 1949 and checked the conditions for the performance of Mother Courage and her children (→ July 21, 1949) at the Städtische Bühnen. Brecht, who had concerns about the performance in Wuppertal without professional guidance, recommends: "To allow Ms. Ruth Berlau, my long-time colleague and excellent director, to have the actors make the basic arrangement." Jan. 49) Berlau put together the conditions for the performance of Mother Courage and her children with images and stage directions . This material was later published in book form by Suhrkamp-Verlag and given on loan to interested theaters.

The Wuppertal City Theater was against Brecht's model production of Mother Courage and her children and showed public resistance to the director Ruth Berlau. "In this case, you push the artistic self-destruction so far that you have your own staging supervised by the delegates Bert Brechts, Ruth Berlau." Ruth Berlau went to Munich and told Brecht about the growing opposition to the theater model. On the joint return trip to Berlin on September 3, 49, Ruth Berlau took numerous photos of friends and of Brecht's birthplace Augsburg, which he felt as "something smashed, strange, leaves me pretty cold."

Shortly thereafter, Berlau went to Leipzig and took part as the director of the production of Mother Courage and her children . She photographed her production and provided a sample - Model Book forth. In the program booklet for the premiere of Die Mutter on January 15, 1950 at the Kammerspiele Leipzig, Ruth Berlau's essay The Uniqueness of Brecht's Position was published. During this time, Berlau developed health problems and states of exhaustion. Since her return to Europe (January 22, 1948, Zurich), she has had no steady income. She got increasingly into financial distress, which contributed significantly to her psychological stress. In a letter to Helene Weigel, RB calculated what she had spent on Barbara a year ago in Switzerland. During that time, she and Brecht were in the middle of editing Die Tage der Commune , and she also had to take care of Barbara, who was obviously afflicted with the more difficult characteristics of a teenager. Brecht, the friends Mertens and Korthner were unable to help her, nor did they want to deal with Barbara's laziness and problems. So this burden stuck to Berlau. In the letter she summed up: " I have a great weakness: you don't let friends down ." During the whole emigration she had sympathy for Helene Weigel, now she has none. "You play (although not epic, but dramatic) the main role in Courage, you run Brecht's theater, you have a house, a car, so pity would not be appropriate. ”And demanded from Helene the immediate repayment of the expenses in Switzerland of 347 francs and 300 East German marks for the things that she had brought her to Weissensee. She urgently needs the money because her account is overdrawn and for the expenses necessary for life. Obviously in response to Berlau's demands to the Weigel, Brecht asks her to "forget" everything she said "bad". "You worked too much, it's my fault."

At the end of February 1950, Ruth Berlau was admitted to the Berlin Charité mental hospital. She wrote to Brecht that he always said of himself that he was the most independent poet in Germany if he should think about whether she could get fresh in this (hospital) atmosphere. It was important for her to leave the clinic as soon as possible and asked him to help, "if not out of love, then out of comradeship." In the same letter, she categorically asked Brecht to get her an official contract with the Berliner Ensemble . She "stuck up the model books like a madman," all of which were sent to other theaters. Weigel should threaten Brecht with his departure if she does not provide her with quiet working conditions and does not give her a contract as archive manager at the ensemble. “What's the matter with you - I can't excuse everything with the fact that you're a genius - not everything. ... What Weigel can do, I can too. «Brecht and Weigel did very well with the establishment of their own theater in East Berlin, they had a solid and secure income. Your “money problems and debts” during the emigration were obviously quickly forgotten - did you even want to remember them?

At Berlaus' requests and demands, Brecht first apologized for his behavior, and he (the teacher Me-Ti) had started "to write down a few points how we could do it on a new basis." Brecht Berlaus tabulated positive behavior with negative behavior or services towards. The positive ones were highlighted in order to strengthen their self-confidence, among other things: » decisively helped to implement the idea of ​​model performances«, »published a decisive book Antigonemodell« , »staged the best model performance in East Zone (mother) ,« and finally: »What to do : Rapid overcoming of the exhaustion phase. Until then, be careful when appearing in public and when dealing with people who are in public life, d. H. Self-censorship. ”B. also advises:“ Leave money problems to Brecht. ”Brecht must have been aware that this was the beginning of a symbiotic relationship with Ruth Berlau on a financial basis, because the same serious discrepancies over unpaid fees were later to arise repeat several times. Brecht himself appreciated the power of money too well, he had written to the publisher Desch only two years earlier that he needed “some time, maybe for a year”, a financial basis for Zurich, otherwise he would risk “a lot in view of the division of Germany. I by no means live like a prince here, but Switzerland is very expensive. So now, for me, money really means independence in a very special sense. ”In another letter to Berlau at the Charité, without a salutation or signature, Brecht objectified their relationship: instead of the personal and the private, the third thing , socialism, should be the foundation their relationship, and what is important is "what we can do for socialism at this stage and in these years, specifically." In conclusion, he summed up: "Nobody owes nothing, everyone owes everything to the third thing." Except - thanks be collective work - your own royalties. In another letter, Brecht is even clearer in response to Berlau's demand: "You will not live on royalties," after all, he goes to work every day and does not live on royalties either.

There are two fixed-term employment contracts between the State Art Affairs Commission. These were represented by the Berliner Ensemble am Schiffbauerdamm, artistic director Helene Weigel, and Ruth Berlau, in the position of head of the literary and photographic archive of the Berliner Ensemble, for the period from September 1, 1953 to August 31, 1954 and from September 1, 1953 to August 31, 1954, respectively. September 1954 to August 31, 1955. Before and after that, Berlau commuted between Zurich, Leipzig, Munich, Rotterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm in Brecht's affairs and on his behalf.

At the end of March 1950, after she was released from the clinic, Ruth Berlau traveled to Holland to recuperate.

In May 1950, Hella Wuolijoki asked Brecht whether he could stage two of his plays (presumably Die Mutter and Puntila) in Helsinki this summer . Brecht cancels with regret and gives the reasons: "You know, the entire Berliner Ensemble with its 60 people rests on Hellis and my shoulders." Instead, he suggested the director Ruth Berlau, who had already staged the two plays and made the model books for the direction. On September 4, 1950, rehearsals for Mother Courage and her children with Therese Giehse in the leading role began at the Kammerspiele in Munich . In addition to Ruth Berlau, the young directors Egon Monk and Eric Bentley were hired as assistants for the direction .

Egon Monk later remembered the collaboration and the atmosphere: “Somewhere” is Brecht's comments on the Berlin performance, “You definitely have to start with something; why shouldn't it be something that had already been thought out? ”“ What was already thought out was portable. Ruth Berlau had taken the two thick volumes with the photos with them from the Berlin performance in Brechts Steyr to Munich. Since she (RB) had photographed the performance several times, you received the entire arrangement at a glance. «In Munich, Monk experienced the Bavarian Brecht , the private and personal one , who also revealed the man Brecht.  "... If an ingrained inhibition did not prevent me from using certain words in connection with Brecht, I would say that being with Bertolt Brecht and Ruth Berlau in Munich was harmonious." Ruth Berlau also made changes in Brecht Dealing with his new colleagues in Berlin compared to the earlier ones who were available to him in exile and criticized him: “You are no longer the wise teacher that you were. You are rude to people and have no reason for antipathy. "Brecht justified himself with his new position in a new political society in East Berlin," I have no students, I have employees. "

Berlau arrived in Rotterdam at the end of November 1950 and began rehearsing for Mother Courage and her children at the Toneel Theater. Berlau's report on her directorial experience with the model abroad was included in Brecht's theater work .

Ruth Berlau is increasingly dissatisfied with her job as archive manager at the Berliner Ensemble. "It was Sisyphean work," she wrote. Their work in its meaning was neither recognized nor recognized. She photographed every production during rehearsals and also in many performances after the premiere. She hadn't counted the films because there were a few thousand recordings. “But I don't want to take any more photos. I only wanted it to help Brecht to get hold of his pieces. There are now enough really good photographers in Berlin, and now he can pay them. In America I was a cheap labor and I was struggling. I want to write and direct. This is my subject, my job. «He processed Brecht's opinion of her professional demands and wishes in literary form in Lai-Tus production in the book of twists and turns . “The poet Kin-jeh said: it is difficult to say what Lai-Tu produced. Maybe it's the 22 lines that I put in my piece about the landscape that would never have been written without them. Of course we never talked about the landscape. What she calls funny influenced me too. It's not what others call funny. Of course I also used the way it moves when building my poems. She does a lot of other things, but even if she had only produced what I made and had produced, it would have been well worth it. ” (Kinjeh did not suffer from modesty.) And in the story of Lai- He wrote Tus's worth : “ Lai-Tu thought little of herself because she had produced no great work. Neither as an actress nor as a poet, she had special achievements. She cared for nothing that poetry was made with her in mind and that good people behaved better than usual. Me-Ti said to her: But that doesn't mean that you didn't perform. Your kindness will be ascertained and appreciated by being availed of. This is how the apple gets its fame by being eaten. "

In October 1955 Berlau flew to Copenhagen and stayed with her mother for several months. During this time, Brecht and Berlau are in contact by letter and exchange current information with each other. Brecht is very keen that she has a permanent place to stay in her home country, like her little house in Humlebäck back then, and tells her about his ideas and conditions for buying a house. Berlau agrees with Brecht's suggestion and wants to look for a suitable house - "so that we can get away" - but would like to be in Berlin in September, as Brecht advised her.

On August 2, 1956, Berlaus' lawyer Chr. Vilh. Hagens wrote a will in Copenhagen about Brecht's conditions and sent it to Brecht in Berlin as an original notarized copy. The subject of house buying and selling is presented in a separate section because of the many untrue claims and contradicting interpretations in Brecht's research.

Brecht died of a heart attack on August 14, 1956 in his apartment on Chausseestrasse in Berlin. Ruth Berlau is still in Copenhagen at this time and was notified of Brecht's death by telegram. Shortly after his death, the management of the Berliner Ensemble terminated their employment contract. It didn't take long to find the reasons. Eric Bentley, the young Brecht translator in the USA and director, also wrote in his memoirs about an incidence that occurred between him and Ruth Berlau during the rehearsals of Mother Courage in Munich in 1950 and about the consequences afterwards. “It wasn't until the heirs took power that I finally got on the enemy's list. Clifford Odets and Charles Laughton were already on it. And it did not take long before the very person who originally (von Brecht) was supposed to work for me joined the three of us: Ruth Berlau. She's dead, but even in the eighties, Winifred Wagner from East Berlin's Red Hill, Barbara Brecht, still defamed her name. «What Bentley couldn't have known was that he was previously on Brecht's hit list. The Brecht Chronik reported on December 28, 1955 that "In connection with an agreement that B (Brecht) wants to conclude with his son, Stefan gives his opinion on Eric Bentley Elisabeth Hauptmann." In addition, his translations of BBs are so scandalously bad that by their very existence here they seriously damage his reputation and his ability to be performed here. «The opinions of his children were important to Brecht and he was happy to get them.

Hans Bunge described Berlau's life after Brecht's death in Lai-Tu from his point of view. In good memory of him, it should not be contradicted when he wrote: »The worst thing was that the young friends, writers and theater people, turned away from her, people for whom Ruth Berlau had been a wonderful advisor, a confidante also in private matters and a helper who was willingly exploited at any time. Ruth Berlau spent the last part of her life lonely, abandoned, even avoided by those who should have been grateful to her. At the end of the day I was one of them too. ”There were also Bentley's words that she was“ the warmest person around Brecht ”and, once praised by Brecht, her“ Chinese diligence, generosity and love, which was enough to make a whole people happy do."

Grave of Ruth Berlau in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin

“When I was once very disappointed in a person because he did not keep what we had promised each other, Brecht took a pencil and wrote for me: For example, you can expect so much from one person, from another so much and from one person third so much. You must never be offended or disappointed if your ideas are not met. Then you had prejudices. If you a have people on whom you can rely one hundred percent you then have a lot. There are no two such people. For Brecht this one person was the Weigel. "

Ruth Berlau had understood the simple philosophy of life of Me-Tis about friends, and when the friends came to her just to collect information about Brecht, or to “borrow” one or two beautiful photos or negatives and not bring them back, they stayed does not spare her the disappointments.

Ruth Berlau died on January 15, 1974 in the Charité hospital in Berlin when her bed caught fire from a cigarette.

"Then she knelt
and dried the
red drops:
she had hit him."

- Ruth Berlau : The Blood Red Cloth , Notate (January 28, 1951)

About causes and effects:

It was on the stage of the Berliner Ensemble during the rehearsals of Kreidekreis when the boy was called by his name Michel and everyone laughed.

factories

  • Report on a bicycle tour to Paris, Ekstra Bladet , 1928.
  • Report on a bicycle tour from Copenhagen to Moscow. Politiken , 1930. Materials and newspaper clippings in the Copenhagen Royal Library
  • Videre. Novel. Steen Hagelbalchs Verlag, Copenhagen 1935.
  • All ved old. Comedy in 3 acts. German translation: "Everyone knows everything" . Review by Werner Hecht about the genesis and Brecht's collaboration on the play in Theater der Zeit . , H 2, Berlin 2002, pp. 25-29.
  • Ethvert Dyr can . Copenhagen. appeared in 1940 at Poul Petri's Bogtrykkeri Copenhagen under the pseudonym Maria Steen. Brecht is not mentioned as a contributor to the stories “All know everything”. (See also: Everyone knows everything. Schwank in three acts . Excerpt from: Theater der Zeit . H. 2, Berlin 2002, pp. 25-29.)
  • The big amusement park . Story under the pseudonym Maria Steen as a manuscript in Danish in the Royal Library in Copenhagen .
  • She gave me her pearls . About Karin Michaëlis . H. 7, Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 1950, p. 655.
  • Brecht's Lai-Tu. Memories and Notes. Ed. And with an afterword by Hans Bunge ; Gudrun Bunge (collaboration). (= Luchterhand Collection. Volume 698). Luchterhand, Darmstadt / Neuwied 1987, ISBN 3-472-61698-9 .
  • Brecht's Lai-Tu. Memories and Notes. Ed. And with an afterword by Hans Bunge; Gudrun Bunge (collaboration) with comments by Barbara Brecht-Schall . Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-359-00299-7 .
  • Danish translation by Brechts Lai Tu. Erindringer og notater af Ruth Berlau. Udgivet af Hans Bunge. Pa dansk ved Leif G. Bertelsen. Gyldendal 1986, Copenhagen.
  • Spanish translation by Brechts Lai Tu. Una vida con Brecht. Recuerdos de Ruth Berlau. Editorial Trotta, SA 1995 Altamirano, Madrid.
  • Any animal can do it. Stories. With an afterword by Klaus Völker . Persona-Verlag, Mannheim 1989, ISBN 3-924652-12-0 .
  • The devil is a bad chauffeur. Between Copenhagen, Paris, New York and Berlin. Edited and with an afterword by Ditte von Arnim. Transit Buchverlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-88747-225-2 .

Theater (direction)

Publications

  • A compliment for the poet: “So this is a hoax!” About Martin Andersen Nexö. Das Magazin , 1954 Berlin, no. 9, pp. 50-53.
  • Our feet are what carries us through life! A true story about the Danish draftsman Robert Storm Petersen. The magazine 1954, no.8.
  • The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht. Das Magazin 1954, no. 9, pp. 50-53.
  • The pony stable. Das Magazin 1954, no. 10, pp. 20-23.
  • I want to live in your heart ... About Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing". Das Magazin 1954, no. 12, pp. 52-55.
  • The "Berliner Ensemble" plays The Winter Battle by Johannes R. Becher. Das Magazin 1955, no. 1, pp. 54-57.
  • A youthful hero and lover is urgently needed. About the Parchim State Theater. Das Magazin 1955, no. 3, p. 53.58.
  • Are beautiful people rare? About Gérard Philipe. Das Magazin 1955, no. 5, p. 53.
  • Do you want to be an actress? About Käthe Reichel. Das Magazin 1955, no. 10, pp. 3-8.
  • In memory of Bertolt Brecht. Das Magazin 1956, no. 10, pp. 18-20.
  • In Tivoli. About the Tivoli in Copenhagen. Das Magazin 1957, no.4 p. 51f.
  • Brecht and the children. Das Magazin 1957, no. 8. pp. 22-25.
  • How I became a bartender in New York . Das Magazin 1957, no. 10, pp. 18-21.
  • How was Brecht? Das Magazin 1958, no. 2, pp. 22-25.
  • Love cannot be sorted out . Remembering Martin Andersen Nexö. Das Magazin 1959, no. 6, pp. 44-46.
  • Our current survey: Funny experiences from the last ten years. In it: Ruth Berlau. Das Magazin 1959, pp. 44-46.
  • My time as an organ grinder. Das Magazin 1959, no. 12, p. 14.
  • My time as a cleaning woman in New York. Das Magazin 1962, no. 12, p. 23.
  • I would like to be wise too. For Hanns Eisler's 65th birthday on July 6th. Das Magazin 1963, no. 2, pp. 23-26.
  • Friendship. For Hanns Eisler's 65th birthday on July 6th. Das Magazin 1963, pp. 22-25.
  • The captain and his ship. About Bertolt Brecht. The magazine 1967, SH 10, p. 10f.
  • Brecht and the humorous Danes. Das Magazin 1969, no. 8, pp. 14-17.
  • Brecht directs. Ruth Berlau talks about the rehearsals for Brecht's “Caucasian Chalk Circle” in the Berliner Ensemble. In: Neue Berliner Illustrierte. Berlin Das Magazin 1954, August 3rd issue.
  • Poetry directed. In: Sense and Form. Second special edition Bertolt Brecht. Berlin, Rütten and Loening Das Magazin 1957.
  • Bertolt Brecht. I. Brecht as a refugee . Free world , Berlin. 4th September 1958.
  • Bertolt Brecht. II. The factory director's son becomes a communist. Free World, Berlin. September 11, 1958.
  • Bertolt Brecht. III. Brechts Berliner Ensemble - helpers in our construction. Free World, Berlin. September 18, 1958.
  • About Charlie Chaplin. Writer and film. Documentation and bibliography. From the collections of the Literature and Language Maintenance Section. Edited by Erika Pick. Academy of Arts 1979.

Translations, collaboration & editing

  • Bertolt Brecht: The mother. Translation into Danish and performance under her direction and in the Copenhagen Workers' Theater, which she founded, in 1934.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Mrs. Carrars Gevaerer. Translation: Ruth Berlau. Copenhagen 1938.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Svendborger poems . Published by Ruth Berlau by Malik-Verlag May 1939, printed by Universal Trykkeriet Köbenhavn, Printed in Denmark
  • Bertolt Brecht: fear and misery of the III. Rich. Translation into Danish by Ruth Berlau 1940.
  • Bertolt Brecht / Casper Neher: Antigonemodell 1948. Editing: Ruth Berlau. With 94 pictures of the performance in Chur / Switzerland by Ruth Berlau. Berlin: Gebrüder Weiss Verlag 1949.
  • Bertolt Brecht: The court master of Jacob Michael Reinhold Lenz . Processing with the participation of, among others. by Ruth Berlau. Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag 1951 (trials 11)
  • Bertolt Brecht: Mrs. Carrar's rifles. Model portfolio with photos of the performances in Paris 1937, Copenhagen 1938, Greifswald 1952. Notes by Ruth Berlau. Edited by Verlag der Kunst Dresden 1952. Theater work. 6 performances by the Berliner Ensemble. Editors: Ruth Berlau, Bertolt Brecht, Claus Hubalek, Peter Palitzsch, Käthe Rülicke. Edited by Berliner Ensemble, Helene Weigel. VVV Dresdner Verlag 1952. The 2nd reviewed and expanded edition: Henschel Verlag 1961.
  • Bertolt Brecht: The good person from Sezuan. Collaboration: Ruth Berlau and Margarete Stefin. Suhrkamp Verlag 1953. Trials 12.
  • Bertolt Brecht: The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Collaboration: Ruth Berlau. Suhrkamp Verlag 1954. Trials 13.
  • Bertolt Brecht: War Primer. Edited by Ruth Berlau. Eulenspiegel Verlag 1955.
  • Bertolt Brecht / Caspar Neher: Antigonemodell 1948 , published by the German Academy of the Arts. Editing and photos: Ruth Berlau. Henschel Verlag 1955. (1st model book by the Berliner Ensemble)
  • Bertolt Brecht: Life of Galileo. Building a role. Laughtons Galilei, published by the German Academy of the Arts Editing and photos: Ruth Berlau. Henschel Verlag 1956. (2nd model book by the Berliner Ensemble)
  • Bertolt Brecht: The days of the Commune. Collaboration: Ruth Berlau. Construction publishing house 1957. Attempts 15.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Mother Courage and her children. With photos of the performances of the Deutsches Theater, the Berliner Ensemble and the Munich Kammerspiele by Ruth Berlau, Heiner Hill and Ruth Wilhelmi. Edited by of the German Academy of the Arts. Henschel Verlag 1958. (3rd model book by the Berliner Ensemble)

About Ruth Berlau

In 2012 the world premiere of the play “Burning, but not consumed, Ruth Berlau - Beloved Brecht” by actor and director Mike Maria took place in the Tiefrot Theater in Cologne.

The piece reflects the life of Ruth Berlau - played by Marina Matthias - who had an intense love and work relationship with Brecht.

literature

Web links

Press article

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brecht Chronicle, p. 379.
  2. ^ Brecht Chronicle, p. 460.
  3. ^ Brecht Chronicle, p. 513.
  4. ↑ Brecht Chronik, p. 515, p. 527; Bertolt Brecht: Kin-jhe said to his sister. In: Book of Twists. P. 167.
  5. ↑ Brecht Chronik, p. 531; See Brecht Chronik, p. 529.
  6. ↑ Brecht Chronicle, p. 549.
  7. ↑ May 20, 1939. See Brecht Chronik, p. 576.
  8. ^ Brecht: Liebesgedichte, p. 96, Frankfurt am Main 2006.
  9. ↑ Brecht Chronicle, p. 585.
  10. ^ Brecht Chronicle, p. 579.
  11. ↑ Brecht Chronicle, p. 584.
  12. ↑ Br. 919, Brecht Chronik, p. 609.
  13. ↑ Brecht Chronik, p. 609.
  14. ↑ Brecht Chronicle, p. 615.
  15. ↑ Br.26,430; Brecht Chronicle, p. 623.
  16. ^ Brecht Chronicle, p. 655.
  17. ↑ Brecht Chronicle, p. 664.
  18. ↑ Brecht Chronik, p. 674.
  19. ^ "Love in the 20th Century" by Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey, 4/2006 VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften
  20. ↑ Br. 994, Brecht Chronik p. 678.
  21. ↑ Br. 1002, Brecht Chronik, p. 679.
  22. ↑ Br. 27,133, Brecht Chronik, p. 696.
  23. ↑ Brecht Chronik, p. 721; Sept 23, 1943.
  24. ↑ The Devil is a Bad Chauffeur, Between Copenhagen, Paris, New York and Berlin, Transit Verlag 2006, Ed. Ditte von Arnim
  25. ↑ See Im Auge des Exils , p. 114, Aufbau Verlag 2001.
  26. ↑ Br. 1186. Cf. Brecht Chronik, p. 759.
  27. ↑ Cf. Brecht Chronik, p. 733.
  28. ^ Brecht Chronicle, p. 734.
  29. ↑ Brechts Arbeitsjournal 1942–1955, p. 714.
  30. ↑ → 10.9; Life and death of Rosa Luxemburg; 10,530f .; 980–983, Brecht Chronik, p. 742.
  31. ↑ Cf. Brecht Chronik, p. 750.
  32. ↑ Brecht Chronik, pp. 767–768; January 11, 46
  33. ↑ Admired a lot and scolded a lot ..., Elisabeth Bergner's untidy memories, Bertelsmann Verlag, 1989, p. 213.
  34. ↑ BBA 286 / 4-10. Brecht Chronik, pp. 770–771.
  35. ↑ Br. GBFA, Volume 29, p. 422.
  36. ↑ Brecht Chronicle, p. 796.
  37. ↑ Mark Lammert: ROT / GELB / BLAU, Theater der Zeit, Oct. 2010, issue 4
  38. ↑ Br. 2208, Brecht Chronik, p. 1188.
  39. ↑ See Brecht Chronik, p. 1194.
  40. ↑ Br. 2, GBFA, Vol. 29, 1263
  41. ↑ Cf. Brecht Chronik, p. 813.
  42. ↑ Ruth Berlau, model books of the Berliner Ensemble 1, Antigonemodell 1948, Henschelverlag 1955.
  43. ^ Letter to Ruth Berlau, co Gerda Goedhart, The Hague, Ten Hovestr. 60 Holland
  44. ↑ Blandine ..., Arche Verlag, Zurich, 1985, p. 184.
  45. ↑ Berolt Brecht. Arbeitsjournal, second volume 1942 to 1955, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1973, p. 832.
  46. ↑ See Brecht Chronik, p. 827, p. 832.
  47. ↑ See Brecht Chronik, p. 848.
  48. ↑ Courage model 1949; 25, 169-385. Brecht Chronicle, p. 853.
  49. ↑ Original recordings in the archive of Prof. Klaus Völker
  50. ↑ Br. 1414, Brecht Chronik, p. 885.
  51. ↑ Cf. Brecht Chronik, p. 882.
  52. ^ H. Sch., Author commands - we follow !, Reinpost, September 16, 49, Brecht Chronik, p. 890.
  53. ↑ Br. 27,307. See Brecht Chronik, p. 887.
  54. ↑ December 23, 49; Brecht Chronicle, p. 901.
  55. ↑ See Brecht Chronik, p. 905.
  56. ↑ 974 / 65-68. See Brecht Chronik, p. 907.
  57. ↑ Br. 1468, Brecht Chronik, p. 906.
  58. ↑ 974 / 1-3, Brecht Chronik, p. 912.
  59. ↑ 974 / 5ff, Brecht Chronik, p. 910.
  60. ↑ Br. 1477, Brecht Chronik, p. 913.
  61. ↑ Br. 1471. Brecht Chronik, p. 913.
  62. ↑ Br. 1329. Brecht Chronik, p. 833.
  63. ↑ Br. 1478, Lai-Tu, p. 311.
  64. ↑ Ruth Berlau Archive at the Academy of Arts, call number: 2977
  65. ↑ Br. 1486, cf. Brecht Chronik, p. 922.
  66. ↑ Directed by Egon Monk, von Puntila zu den Bertinis, Transit Verlag 2007, p. 118.
  67. ^ The Dutch Courage, 328-332, Brecht Chronik, p. 942.
  68. ^ → February 1956, Brecht Chronik, p. 1214.
  69. ↑ 2201/59. See Brecht Chronik, p. 1216.
  70. ↑ Eric Bentley, Memories of Brecht, Alexander Verlag, Berlin, p. 93.
  71. ↑ 685/23. Brecht Chronicle, p. 1197.
  72. ↑ World premiere: “Burning, but not consumed”. Theaterkompass.de, January 11, 2012, accessed on November 1, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Berlau, Ruth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish actress, director, photographer and writer
BIRTH DATE August 24, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen , Denmark
DATE OF DEATH 15th January 1974
PLACE OF DEATH East Berlin , German Democratic Republic