Abstract
The Berliner Ensemble (BE), founded by Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel on 1 September 1949 in what was soon to become East Berlin, is one of the most internationally recognised theatre companies of the twentieth century. This essay will examine how the BE attained such a position and will consider through a series of examples the different meanings of the company’s international fame, both for the BE and the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the ruling political party in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
This work was supported by a British Academy Research Development Award and an Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship (AH/I003961/1).
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Barnett, D. (2017). The Politics of an International Reputation: The Berliner Ensemble as a GDR Theatre on Tour. In: Balme, C., Szymanski-Düll, B. (eds) Theatre, Globalization and the Cold War. Transnational Theatre Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48084-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48084-8_4
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48084-8
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