The Role of Brecht’s collaborators has been discussed in many scholarly works and biographies, and his female collaborators have received particular attention. During each phase of his career, Brecht had colleagues who helped to write and edit plays and short stories — such as Elisabeth Hauptmann in the Weimar Republic and then in the GDR, Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau during the years traveling and writing in exile, and Benno Besson and Käthe Rülicke-Weiler in the GDR. This essay focuses on Hauptmann, whose role was in some ways typical of Brecht’s other collaborators, but who merits particular importance because of her longstanding role in the creation and public promotion of his works. Whereas much scholarship on Hauptmann has focused on her collaboration with Brecht in the Weimar years, this essay investigates her influence on the staging and publication of his texts in the GDR, and her contributions to new plays and adaptations. Hauptmann was more than simply the editor of Brecht’s works in the GDR: behind the scenes, she quietly provided inspiration and guidance to Brecht and his assistants at the Berliner Ensemble (BE), as well as to Helene Weigel as the theater’s managing director. As we shall see, members of the BE paid tribute to Hauptmann’s importance, but her coauthorship of specific works often went unacknowledged there.

From Exile to East Berlin

Well-known for her editorial influence as well as her authorial role in Brecht’s early works up until 1933, when they left Germany — Hauptmann to St. Louis and the greater New York City area, and Brecht to Scandinavia — Hauptmann maintained contact with Brecht in exile and often met with intellectuals to find opportunities to produce his plays. In letters to Brecht she offered critique, commentary, and suggestions for his works in progress. After Brecht had brought his family and Ruth Berlau to the United States in 1941, settling in Santa Monica to work in the film industry, he relied initially on Berlau to find opportunities for productions in the New York City area. Yet in 1944, when Brecht hired Eric Bentley to translate his works into English, he promptly recruited Hauptmann to edit and oversee the translations, even giving her the right of plein pouvoir over the texts. This was her first chance to manage the political message of his plays, and Bentley argues that she was not slow to use this power.