Throughout his theoretical and poetical writings of the 1930s, Brecht argued that capitalist crises and fascism's rise had destabilized the concept of truth. As we read in “Über die Wiederherstellung der Wahrheit” (“On Restoring the Truth”; 1934), Brecht was living “in Zeiten, wo die Täuschung gefordert und die Irrtümer gefördert werden” (BFA 22.1, 89; “in times when deception is demanded and errors are encouraged”1). Germany's fascist regime, Brecht makes clear in “Eine notwendige Feststellung zum Kampf gegen die Barberei” (“A Necessary Observation on the Struggle against Barbarism”; 1935), transforms “die großen Wörter, … die unvergänglichen Begriffe” (BFA 22.1, 143; “the big words, … the enduring concepts” [BAP, 159]) of bourgeois society:

Brecht exposes how the Nazis, by manipulating and altering language to beautify the terrible reality they have created, challenge our understanding of truth and untruth, of the (non-)correspondence between language and reality. In 1932, Brecht presciently wrote the following in “Nutzen der Wahrheit” (“Use of Truth”):

Aristotle and the correspondence theory of truth, Brecht contends, no longer suffice in a situation in which truth has become a political weapon, its own “truthfulness” validated by its expediency alone.