Bertold Brecht

Bertold Brecht wrote for Quest, the journal of ideas sponsored by the Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom, appearing in one issue of the archive’s run (No. 22 (July/Sept. 1959 (quarterly)).

Quest’s contributor note in No. 22 (July/Sept. 1959 (quarterly), p. 73 reads:

A Note: Bertold Brecht, after his death in East Berlin in August 1956, was described by the official East German Press as ‘the greatest German … the most significant contemporary dramatist’. His authorship of the first poem (The Solution) has not been officially confirmed, but it has not been officially denied either. Martin Esslin writes in Encounter (June, 1959): “There can be little doubt that it is genuine. Its style is similar to that of a number of other poems from the same period of Brecht’s life which have been published, and which display the same epigramatic kind of wit”. The same writer comments on the other poem (Bad Morning): “It clearly refers to Brecht’s feelings of guilt about his support for the East German regime”. We are thankful to the editors of Encounter for permission to reproduce these poems.