Berliner Ensemble

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The Berliner Ensemble is a German theatre company established by playwright, Bertolt Brecht and his wife, Helene Weigel in January 1949. The group performed most of the plays by Brecht, but added some from other dramatists in the 1970s. After Brecht's death, Weigel continued managing the Berliner Ensemble until her death in 1971. The company expanded its selection to that of other European playwrights. In 1992, the Berlin Senate appointed five stage directors to serve as its Intendanten (General Directors): Peter Zadek, Peter Palitsch, Heiner Müller, Fritz Marquardt and Matthias Langhoff. In that same year, Alexander Frey was appointed Music Director of the Berliner Ensemble. Frey was the first American to hold a position at the Berliner Ensemble, as well as being the theater’s first non-German Music Director; his historic predecessors include the composers Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau. The Berliner Ensemble was the place where Brecht and Weill created many of their famous collaborations, including Die Dreigroschen Oper (The Threepenny Opera) and Happy End, among others.

Dreigroschenoper and Happy end premiered in Berlin in 1928 and 1929 respectively. Brecht wrote no plays for the Berliner Ensemble, founded in January 1949 but remounted Previously staged plays, premiering with Mother Courage. After Brecht's death, 3 plays, The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, Schweyk in the 2nd World War and The Visions of Simone Machard, had their premieres with the Ensemble.