Remembering Brecht: Anniversaries at the Berliner Ensemble

This chapter examines how the Berliner Ensemble negotiated major anniversaries of Brecht’s birth. These occasions offered the theatre an opportunity to cement its identity by celebrating its shared past and showcasing its latest work. But they always functioned as neuralgic points, as the management came under pressure to deliver outstanding new productions for an international and domestic audience. When the GDR marked Brecht’s 70th birthday in 1968, the BE was trapped in a perpetual present: the attempt to conceal the crippling conflict over Weigel’s succession meant that the company could not present a vision for its future. In 1973, however, manager Ruth Berghaus used Brecht’s 75th birthday to present the BE as a post-Brechtian theatre and to challenge the policy of conservation advocated by Brecht’s heirs. When they refused her permission to stage Brecht’s plays, his forthcoming 80th birthday prompted the SED to replace Berghaus with Manfred Wekwerth. Yet Wekwerth’s attempt to reconnect with the successes of the early 1960s failed, and even the coverage of the 1978 celebrations in Neues Deutschland acknowledged that the main action was taking place elsewhere. By 1988, the BE’s commemorations had ossified; the centrepiece was the unveiling of Fritz Cremer’s statue of Brecht, rather than a living commemoration through innovative productions. The commemorations of Brecht’s decennial anniversaries thus highlight the BE’s key problem since the early 1960s: its struggle to link its past theatrical achievements to a convincing narrative for the company’s future.