Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a revolutionary German playwright, poet, and theatre theorist. He was born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht on February 10, 1898, in Augsburg, Bavaria, into a middle-class family. During World War I, Brecht served as a medical orderly rather than as a soldier. The brutality of the war left a lasting impression on him, fueling his later Marxist leanings and deep suspicion of nationalism and authority. 

After the war, Brecht studied medicine at the University of Munich but soon gravitated toward theatre and writing. By 1918, he had written his first major play, Baal, which introduced many of the rebellious, anti-bourgeois themes that would characterize his later work. In the 1920s, Brecht quickly made a name for himself in the German theatrical world. Plays like Drums in the Night (1922) won awards, while In the Jungle of Cities (1923) and Man Equals Man (1926) revealed his growing experimentation with form and structure. He also collaborated with composers like Kurt Weill, producing works such as The Threepenny Opera (1928), a biting, satirical take on capitalist society.

The rise of Nazism in 1933 forced Brecht into exile. A committed Marxist and outspoken critic of fascism, he fled Germany, spending years in countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the United States.