Abstract
The Berliner Ensemble (BE), founded by Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel on 1 September 1949 in what was soon to become East Berlin, is one of the most internationally recognised theatre companies of the twentieth century. This essay will examine how the BE attained such a position and will consider through a series of examples the different meanings of the company’s international fame, both for the BE and the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the ruling political party in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This work was supported by a British Academy Research Development Award and an Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship (AH/I003961/1).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barnett, D. (2017). The Politics of an International Reputation: The Berliner Ensemble as a GDR Theatre on Tour. In: Balme, C., Szymanski-Düll, B. (eds) Theatre, Globalization and the Cold War. Transnational Theatre Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48084-8_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48084-8_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48083-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48084-8
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)