THE ARTS/THEATER	MARCH 2, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 9
	Sturm Und Brecht Even as Germany celebrates Brecht's centenary, his artistic legacy and reputation are under siege By JULIE K.L. DAM ot long before his death in 1956, Bertolt Brecht told an interviewer to "write that I was inconvenient, and intend to remain so after my death. Even then there are certain possibilities." History has not let him down. This year marks the centenary of Brecht's birth, and Germany has had to figure out how, in a reunified, post-communist era, to deal with an unrepentant Marxist whose Berliner Ensemble was an artistic showcase for the East German state. Happily for Brecht, his popularity apparently outweighs his politics. Since January, Germany's stages and airwaves have been filled with programs celebrating a man once reviled in the West and now embraced as the country's most famous modern playwright. A special Brecht commemorative stamp has now been issued and at official birthday events, politicians and thespians alike have gathered to praise him. But in a development that Brecht might have appreciated, the virtual lovefest has also inconveniently provided a more prominent stage for the simmering feuds over his artistic legacy and reputation. The centenary celebrations--and the controversy--began in earnest at the Berliner Ensemble on Jan. 28 with the premiere of experimental American director Robert Wilson's production of Brecht's The Ocean Flight, a radio-parable ode to Charles Lindbergh. With the approval of Brecht's powerful daughter and executor Barbara Brecht-Schall, Wilson--who was originally approached by Brecht's late disciple Heiner Mueller--surprisingly dumped Kurt Weill's original score and commissioned one by the relatively unknown composer Hans Peter Kuhn, and added excerpts from Mueller and Dostoyevsky. The result is a surreal triptych about man and technology. This Brecht-Weill trial separation could have considerable consequences if it leads to divorce. Kim Kowalke, who heads the Kurt Weill Foundation in New York, responded to the production with an ominous statement: "I am delighted that Barbara Brecht's unilateral withdrawal from the collaboration agreement between Weill and Brecht will allow Weill's music to be used in the future with different lyrics and in different dramatic works." He refers to Weill's never-executed idea of commissioning a new text for his popular Threepenny Opera score. If that were to happen, Brecht-Schall and her two siblings stand to lose a fortune in royalties, which they have been receiving on not only theatrical productions but also musical recordings such as Bobby Darin's hit rendition of Mack the Knife. That can't be a happy prospect for the Brecht heirs, who are also battling the claim that their patriarch didn't even write everything for which he has been credited. Launched to coincide with the centenary, an expanded German edition of John Fuegi's 1995 book, Brecht & Co., contains 1,087 pages--including nearly 1,800 footnotes and a 30-page index--full of attacks on Brecht's character and talent. A professor at the University of Maryland and founder of the International Brecht Society, Fuegi claims that much of Brecht's oeuvre was actually the work of Ruth Berlau, Margarete Steffin and Elisabeth Hauptmann, talented women whom he took as lovers and, allegedly, uncredited collaborators. Hauptmann, Fuegi says, was responsible for 80% of Brecht's most famous work, The Threepenny Opera. Acknowledged for translating John Gay's The Beggar's Opera into German for Brecht, she was assigned 12.5% of the royalties (to Brecht's 62.5% and Weill's 25%). While Brecht scholars have long accepted the collective nature of his playwriting, Fuegi goes a step further and says that not only did these women do the bulk of the work, but they were also exploited and discarded by the sexist Brecht. Though critics have pointed out his questionable attributions and interpretations, Fuegi is getting plenty of attention. On Dec. 8, Fuegi was scheduled to present to Berlin's Academy of the Arts and the Berliner Ensemble documents backing his claims. But when the organizers saw the TV crew following him, they abruptly canceled the events. No matter. The perpetuation of his viewpoint was guaranteed last December when Hauptmann's niece, citing Fuegi's book, sued for a larger share of the royalties for The Threepenny Opera. The other keeper of Brecht's legacy, the Berliner Ensemble, has its own problems. Just a year ago, Martin Wuttke, the theater's pro tem artistic director, resigned because the Berlin government was unable to guarantee the budget for the centenary season. As a result of the bad publicity the Berlin Senate coughed up the money, but the Ensemble is pursuing corporate and private sponsorship just in case. Additionally, no permanent artistic director has been installed. With Brecht's reputation under siege, the only consolation is that as long as his plays are as popular as they are around the world, all can be forgiven. As even Fuegi conceded, "What in my opinion is completely beyond any doubt is that Brecht is almost as often performed as Shakespeare, and that is a tremendous accomplishment, isn't it?" For his detractors, Brecht keeps proving himself inconveniently pertinent. --Reported by Paul Moor /Berlin
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