Bertolt Brecht.

Growing up in Augsburg, Bavaria, Bertolt Brecht was raised by his mother Sophie Brezing in a middle-class household. Born on 10 February 1898 as Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, he studied medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and worked as an orderly in a Munich hospital during World War I, an experience that shaped his anti-war views. Brecht began writing poetry and plays as a teenager, with his first play Baal completed in 1918.

Brecht shot to fame with The Threepenny Opera in 1928, a collaboration with composer Kurt Weill that became a global success. In the 1920s and early 1930s, he wrote landmark works including Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny 1928-29 and Saint Joan of the Stockyards 1929. As the Nazis rose to power, Brecht fled Germany in 1933, eventually settling in the United States. While in Hollywood, he wrote Mother Courage and Her Children 1939 and The Good Person of Sezuan 1940. In 1947, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and left the US soon after. He returned to Europe and founded the Berliner Ensemble in East Berlin, becoming a state intellectual hero.

Brecht married opera singer Marianne Zoff in 1922; they separated in 1923 and divorced in 1927. He married actress Helene Weigel in 1929, and they remained together until his death. With Zoff he had daughter Hanne Hiob born 1923; with Weigel he had Stefan Brecht born 1924 and Barbara Brecht Schall born 1930, also known as Barbara Berg. He also fathered Frank Banholzer born 1919, killed in action 1943 with Paula Banholzer, and a son Michel Berlau born 1944 with Ruth Berlau, who died shortly after birth. Zoff, an opera singer, contributed to his musical influences.

Brecht shaped modern theater through his concept of epic theater, challenging traditional dramatic forms and inspiring generations of artists. He received the International Stalin Prize for Peace and the National Prize of East Germany, and earned a star on the Playwrights’ Sidewalk. Posthumously, his works received two Tony Award nominations: as author of Best Play nominee Mother Courage and Her Children 1963 and for lyrics in Happy End 1977. His plays like The Threepenny Opera and Mother Courage remain staples of world theater. He revolutionized drama with his political and theatrical innovations.