German poet, playwright, and theatrical innovator, Bertolt Brecht was one of the most important figures in 20th-century theatre.
Brecht developed a new form of political theatre and was the foremost theatre reformer of the Weimar Republic. His left leaning politics also marked him for persecution once the Nazi’s took over Germany and Brecht and his longtime musical collaborator Kurt Weil were forced to move around the world in search or work and audiences.
Brecht was born in Augsburg into a middle class family. His school years were marked by insubordination and he was an indifferent student. He was bright enough, however to gain entry to the University of Munich as a medical student. But he soon became more interested in theatre and fell foul of university authorities by challenging the opinions of the college’s foremost theatre professor.
Although a student Brecht was drafted into the war effort and became a medical orderly in the German Army for the last months of the great war.

Returning to Germany, Brecht wrote theatre reviews for the left-wing Socialist paper Die Augsburger from 1919 and 1921. During the Bavarian revolutionary turmoil of 1918, Brecht wrote his first play, Baal. Brecht also wrote theatre reviews for the left-wing Socialist paper Die Augsburger.

Brecht's joined the Independent Social Democratic party in 1919 and, increasingly, became involved in left wing politics. By 1920 Brecht was named a chief adviser at the Munich Kammerspiele and was in charge of play selection at the prestigious theatre. At this time, Brecht also began to develop a reputation as a drinker and womanizer. In 1921 a brief affair with an actress resulted in a son. The following year, he married an opera singer, although many affairs were to follow and he divorced in 1927.

In 1923, Brecht finally mounted a production of Baal to some success. That success led to an appointment to the Max Reinhardt's Deutches Theater in Berlin.

In Berlin, Brecht met the composer Kurt Weil and the two began working together and the two produced a number of successful musicals. In 1927, Brecht became increasingly involved in communist politics and began to define the type of political activist theatre that he would become identified with.
At the Schiffbauerdam Theater he trained many actors who were to become famous on stage and screen, such as Oscar Homolka, Peter Lorre, and Kurt Weil’s wife Lotte Lenya and many appeared in Brecht’s plays through the late ‘20s.
In 1928, Brecht and Weil produced their most famous play Die Dreigroschenoper or The Threepenny Opera. The play was a radical attack on bourgeois respectability set in Victorian London. Although the rehearsals were marked by affairs and drunkenness the final show was a huge success. One song from the play, Mack the Knife, is still a jazz standard.
The rise of the Nazi’s meant that Brecht’s plays were increasingly interrupted by Nazi thugs. When Hitler came to power in 1933 Brecht´s books and plays were banned and play productions forbidden.
Brecht eventually fled Germany, first to Denmark and then to Finland. In Finland, Brecht wrote Mr Puntila and his Man Matti and Mother Courage and Her Children, considered by some his best plays.
But as the war continued, Brecht finally fled Europe for America. In 1941, Brecht arrived in California with his wife, children and mistress. He tried to work on Hollywood screenplays but his only success was working with German director Fritz Lang. He did however pen two of his most famous plays The Good Person of Sezuan and Life of Galileo.  
After the war, Brecht became a subject of investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities for his communist connections. Before testifying Brecht returned to Europe and found a welcome home in communist East Germany. There he was given his own theatre and was lauded as a hero. Brecht continued to write and received many awards but his best work was behind him.
In 1956, Brecht died in East Berlin.

The Threepenny Opera

Set in Victorian London, the play follows the exploits of Macheath, an amoral, anti-heroic criminal.

Macheath, who is also known as Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife, marries Polly Peachum, daughter of Mr Peachum who runs an army of beggers in the city. Mr Peachum is upset at the marriage and attempts to frame Macheath for murder and have him hanged. Thwarting this plan is the Chief of Police Tiger Brown who is a childhood friend of Macheath. But Mr Peachum finally exerts his influence and gets Macheath arrested and sentenced to hang. But in a parody of theatrical happy endings that make the audience leave happy Macheath escapes the execution when a messenger brings a pardon for Macheath from the queen and also a knighthood for good measure.

The Threepenny Opera is a work of of what Brecht called epic theatre—captions are projected on the back wall and the characters sometimes carry picket-signs. They play subverts traditional notions of theatre and directly challenges bourgeois notions of morality and property ownership.  "Who is the greater criminal: he who robs a bank or he who founds one?"
The Threepenny Opera is also an example of the modern musical comedy genre and introduced jazz to European theatre. It is the quintessential play of its era and the Weimar era of Germany.  
"Mack the Knife" and now a jazz standard covered by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Sting.

Brecht also published a prose version of the play called The Threepenny Novel.