“The war followed us like a shadow”: Brecht in danish exile

Abstract

This article examines the period between 1933-1939 when Poet, drama author and critic Bertolt Brecht sought exile in Denmark, as National Socialist Party rose to power. It approaches exile as a historical and sociological topic and as a XXth century historical phenomenon. It characterizes the period of the Weimar republic as favorable to the artistic vanguards, to liberal thoughts, when Brecht established the principles of epic theatre. These flourishing development in theatre, disrupted by the politics of co-ordination which determined the emigration of the best intellectuals of the time in Germany. In exile since 1933 Brecht characterized the condition of the political exiled and reflected on the nature of Nazism in his letters, poems, work diaries. Through recurrence to intellectual history we seek to recognize the evolution of his thoughts, as well as friendship and solidarity relations within the german intellectual community in exile, which was a way to survive in the sense that they helped to soften the condition of isolation and allowed him to continue his literary works. Besides, thanks to those relations Brecht kept acting politically and denouncing fascism through poetry and drama. For Brecht, a main task was to mobilize the émigrés, to break out from conformity, to benefit from their literary fame to oppose Nazi regime abroad.