Margarete Steffin

Margarete Steffin (born 21 March 1908 in Rummel castle, now in Berlin; † 4 June 1941 in Moscow) was a German actress and writer.

Life

Steffin grew up in Berlin's working class milieu and evolved professionally from an errand girl for an accountant. During the communist youth movement she was engaged working. For the agitprop work, she wrote her first lyrics, she performed in workers' theaters.

In the early 1930s, a close working relationship developed and love to Bertolt Brecht. Brecht appreciated their proletarian experience and incorporated them into his work, so at the "mother" by Gorky, a. Also in other works of Brecht was named by him as co-author.

1933 Steffin went along with Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel into exile in Denmark. In 1936 she married the journalist there Svend Jensen. 1939/1940 fled the " Brechtian extended family " to the now Brecht new favorite Ruth Berlau belonged, via Sweden and Finland to the Soviet Union to emigrate from there to the USA. Shortly before the departure of the group fell ill Steffin hard - for several years suffering from tuberculosis - and died in Moscow.

When Brecht in 1940 sought a U.S. visa for her, he described her as his closest colleague: " In fact, only she overlooks my thousands of manuscript leaves. " That was not an exaggeration for sure Steffin led almost the entire correspondence with publishers and friends Brecht wrote lyrics to terms, here was also critical witness, learned languages ​​, where it was necessary and ordered Brecht's poems. As Steffin died, Brecht was working for over a year unable. Brecht's poem "After the death of my fellow MS " refers to Margarete Steffin and emphasizes their importance for the Brechtian work. The literary work of Margarete Steffin and their influence on the creation of " Brecht Workshop" was not known until the 1960s and beyond appreciated.

Works

• Twins, 1932
• Today I dreamed that I would be with you, 1933
• From love and war, in 1933, European publishing house, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-434-50461-3
• So I was running girl, 1933
• The big thing in 1933
• Letters to famous men, European publishing house, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-434-50437-0
• Confucius does not understand women, Rowohlt, Berlin 1991 ISBN 3-87134-032-4

• Mother Courage and Her Children, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt aM 1958
• The Good Person of Szechwan, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt aM 1959
• Life of Galileo, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt aM 1959
• Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt aM 1970

Interest

After Margarete Steffin a street in central Berlin is named.