From and about a great modern German writer (if a problematic man)

Last updated on: May 31, 2015 at 2:14 am by Dan Peterson

From and about a great modern German writer (if a problematic man) 2015-05-31T02:14:32-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Bertolt Brecht, German poet, playwright, and director

Some scattered quotations from the playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956):

Sometimes it’s more important to be human, than to have good taste.

Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.

He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.

What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?

The finest plans have always been spoiled by the littleness of them that should carry them out. Even emperors can’t do it all by themselves.

Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.

Don’t be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.

To put it mildly, I’m not an admirer of Bertolt Brecht. But he was very gifted. Even if he voluntarily chose to deploy his gifts in allegiance to a dreary and brutal Stalinist dictatorship (which, perhaps not coincidentally, coincided with a notable decline in his literary output), I felt that I ought not to leave East Berlin without citing something from him.

And maybe, in his defense, after the famous 1953 uprising in East Berlin that was put down by Russian tanks, he realized that he had been wrong. Certainly, had he lived a few months longer, he would likely have been unimpressed by the even more brutal Russian suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in October and November of 1956, which began two months after his death. Here’s a passage from his very late poem “Die Lösung” (The Solution), which shows at least the stirrings of overdue disillusionment:

After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts.

Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Posted from (the former East) Berlin, Germany

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