2 February 2023

The Akademie der Künste marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Bertolt Brecht – An event with Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth

Book launch, open archive, presentation of a special postage stamp and coin
Thursday, 9 February 2023, 8 pm, Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4
Friday, 10 February 2023, from 10 am, Brecht House, Chausseestraße 125

The Akademie der Künste is commemorating the playwright, poet and author Bertolt Brecht with celebrations and events to mark the 125th anniversary of his birth. On 9 February, the eve of the anniversary, the book Unsere Hoffnung heute ist die Krise (Our Hope Today Is the Crisis), edited by Noah Willumsen, will be presented in the Academy building on Pariser Platz. Kathrin Röggla, Vice President of the Akademie der Künste, will welcome visitors; Claudia Roth, Minister of State for Culture and Media, will give the official address.
Unsere Hoffnung heute ist die Krise contains 91 interviews with Bertolt Brecht conducted between 1926 and 1956 and not reprinted since that time. In these interviews, most of which are not known to the public, Brecht shows himself to be an eloquent media artist. Together with the edition of the playwright’s notebooks, this is the most important new Brecht publication to appear in recent years.
In addition to this, the Federal Ministry of Finance, represented by State Secretary Steffen Saebisch, will present a special postage stamp and a coin that is being issued to commemorate the anniversary.

The Akademie der Künste is celebrating Brecht’s birthday on Friday, 10 February, with special tours of its Brecht-Weigel Museum in the Brecht House on Chausseestraße: the programme there will include films, an open archive and poems and songs performed by drama students.

The Akademie der Künste is home to the Bertolt Brecht Archive, which comprises the writer/director’s extensive estate, with well in excess of one million documents. The archive includes work manuscripts, diaries, notebooks, letters, the archive library with the libraries bequeathed by Brecht, Helene Weigel and others, the photo archive, and theatre documents with performance-related materials, design books and sound and film recordings.

The events commemorating the 125th anniversary of the birth of Bertolt Brecht are being staged in cooperation with the Berliner Ensemble, Suhrkamp Verlag, the Literature Forum in the Brecht House and the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts (HfS Ernst Busch).

Event details
The 125th Anniversary of the Birth of Bertolt Brecht
Book launch, presentation of a special postage stamp and coin
Thursday, 9 February 2023, 8 pm
In German
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
With State Minister of Culture Claudia Roth, Maximilian Diehle, Paul Herwig, Kathrin Röggla, Steffen Saebisch, Noah Willumsen
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Admission €6/4, ticket reservations: 030 200 57–20 00; ticket@adk.de 
Tickets available online at www.adk.de/tickets 

Special tours, open archive, songs and poems
Friday, 10 February 2023, from 10 am
In German
Brecht House, Chausseestr. 125, 10115 Berlin

For press passes, please email presse@adk.de or telephone 030 200 57–15 14.