Elisabeth Hauptmann (20 June 1897, Peckelsheim, Westphalia, German
Empire â€" 20 April 1973, East Berlin) was a German writer who worked
with fellow German playwright and director Bertolt Brecht.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[1]. She began collaborating with Brecht in 1924, and is
listed as co-author of The Threepenny Opera (1928). She purportedly[2]
wrote the majority of the text as well as providing a German
translation of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, on which the musical
play is based, as working material for Brecht and Kurt Weill, the
composer. She reportedly wrote at least half of the
Mahagonny-Songspiel, but was not credited.[2] She was the main text
author of the musical comedy Happy End (1929).[citation needed]Because
of the rise of Nazism, Hauptmann went into exile in the United States
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
for the Berlin Ensemble.[citation needed]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-era Chinese play. In 1977, a collection of
her works was published under the title Julia ohne Romeo (Julia
without Romeo). [3]
Empire â€" 20 April 1973, East Berlin) was a German writer who worked
with fellow German playwright and director Bertolt Brecht.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[1]. She began collaborating with Brecht in 1924, and is
listed as co-author of The Threepenny Opera (1928). She purportedly[2]
wrote the majority of the text as well as providing a German
translation of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, on which the musical
play is based, as working material for Brecht and Kurt Weill, the
composer. She reportedly wrote at least half of the
Mahagonny-Songspiel, but was not credited.[2] She was the main text
author of the musical comedy Happy End (1929).[citation needed]Because
of the rise of Nazism, Hauptmann went into exile in the United States
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
for the Berlin Ensemble.[citation needed]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-era Chinese play. In 1977, a collection of
her works was published under the title Julia ohne Romeo (Julia
without Romeo). [3]
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