Elisabeth Hauptmann
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Elisabeth Hauptmann (20 June 1897, Peckelsheim, Westphalia,
German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
– 20 April 1973,
East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
) was a German writer who worked with fellow German playwright and director
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
. She got to know Brecht in 1922, the same year she came to Berlin. She worked as a secretary for the German-American poet and writer Herman George Scheffauer.See Sabine Kebir, ''Ich fragte nicht nach meinem Anteil: Elisabeth Hauptmanns Arbeit mit Bertolt Brecht'' I didn't ask about my share: Elisabeth Hauptmann's work with Bertolt Brecht"(Aufbau-Verlag GmbH: Berlin 1997), p. 22. She began collaborating with Brecht in 1924, and is listed as co-author of ''
The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a 1928 German "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François V ...
'' (1928). She purportedlyJohn Fuegi, ''Brecht & Co.: Sex, Politics and the Making of the Modern Drama'' (New York: Grove Press, 1994). wrote the majority of the text as well as providing a German translation of
John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peach ...
's '' The Beggar's Opera'', on which the musical play is based, as working material for Brecht and
Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...
, the composer. She reportedly wrote at least half of the '' Mahagonny-Songspiel'', but was not credited. She was the main text author of the musical comedy '' Happy End'' (1929). Because of the rise of Nazism, Hauptmann went into
exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...
in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
from 1934 to 1949, marrying German composer and conductor Paul Dessau in 1943. After Brecht's death in 1956, she published works of his at Suhrkamp Verlag, a German publishing house, and worked as a
dramaturg A dramaturge or dramaturg (from Ancient Greek δραματουργός – dramatourgós) is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and pr ...
for the Berlin Ensemble. In 1961, she received the Lessing Award, which the Ministry for Culture (East Germany) awarded every year. She made a German version of ''He hanshan'' (''The Confronted undershirt''), a
Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...
-era Chinese play. In 1977, a collection of her works was published under the title ''Julia ohne Romeo'' (''Julia without Romeo'').Tian, Min, p
40
" .. Yuan play, ''He hanshan'' (The Confronted Undershirt) .nd it was later rendered into German by Elisabeth Hauptmann."


References


Sources

* Hanssen, Paula. ''Elisabeth Hauptmann: Brecht's Silent Collaborator''. New York University/Ottendorfer, Book 46, 1995; . 173pp. * Tian, Min. ''The Poetics of Difference and Displacement: Twentieth-Century Chinese-Western Intercultural Theatre''.
Hong Kong University Press Hong Kong University Press (abbreviated as HKU Press) is the university press of the University of Hong Kong. It was established in 1956 and publishes more than 50 titles per year in both Chinese and English. Most works in English are on cultura ...
, 1 June 2008; /. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hauptmann, Elisabeth 1897 births 1973 deaths People from Höxter (district) People from the Province of Westphalia German women dramatists and playwrights Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German women writers