Marieluise Fleißer
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Marieluise Fleisser (1901-1974) was a German author and playwright.
Born in Ingolstadt in Bavaria, she had a brief period of fame in the 1920s, and was rediscovered in the 1970s by a later generation, among them the theatre director Peter Stein and the playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz.
Her best known works are two plays, Purgatory in Ingolstadt (1924) and Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1926). Bertolt Brecht persuaded the director Moriz Seeler to stage the first play, which Seeler retitled; Fleisser's original title was The Washing of Feet. Brecht then encouraged her to write Pioneers. Premiered in Berlin, the plays caused a scandal, especially in her home town, and were attacked by the Nazis, who had not yet come to power .
The plays were given their London premieres at the Gate Theatre, London in 1990, directed by Annie Castledine and Stephen Daldry.
