Margarete Emilie Charlotte Steffin (21 March 1908 â€" 4 June 1941) was
a German actress and writer, one of Bertold Brecht's closest
collaborators, as well as a prolific translator from Russian and
Scandinavian languages.Born to a proletarian family, at the age of
fourteen she went to work for the phone company but her interest in
Social Democratic politics got her fired. She worked in publishing and
agitprop theatre, and became secretary of the party's Lehreverband
(1930) and worked at the Rote Revue. In 1931, she took a diction class
from Brecht's wife Helene Weigel and became his lover. She was
introduced to the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, playing a maid in Die
Mutter (1932).In 1933 Brecht and Weigel went into exile in Denmark.
Though soon replaced as Brecht's lover by Ruth Berlau, Steffin entered
an arranged marriage to a Danish citizen to stay as Brecht's secretary
and followed the Brechts to Finland and Moscow when war broke out. She
died from tuberculosis (diagnosed already in 1931) while awaiting an
American visa. Brecht wrote six short poems on hearing of her death,
eventually published together as Nach dem Tod meiner Mitarbeiterin M.
S. The second reads:
a German actress and writer, one of Bertold Brecht's closest
collaborators, as well as a prolific translator from Russian and
Scandinavian languages.Born to a proletarian family, at the age of
fourteen she went to work for the phone company but her interest in
Social Democratic politics got her fired. She worked in publishing and
agitprop theatre, and became secretary of the party's Lehreverband
(1930) and worked at the Rote Revue. In 1931, she took a diction class
from Brecht's wife Helene Weigel and became his lover. She was
introduced to the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, playing a maid in Die
Mutter (1932).In 1933 Brecht and Weigel went into exile in Denmark.
Though soon replaced as Brecht's lover by Ruth Berlau, Steffin entered
an arranged marriage to a Danish citizen to stay as Brecht's secretary
and followed the Brechts to Finland and Moscow when war broke out. She
died from tuberculosis (diagnosed already in 1931) while awaiting an
American visa. Brecht wrote six short poems on hearing of her death,
eventually published together as Nach dem Tod meiner Mitarbeiterin M.
S. The second reads:
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