The Measures Taken and other Lehrstücke

by Bertolt Brecht, Carl R. Mueller, Ralph Manheim

The Lehrstücke (or 'learning-plays') lie at the heart of Brechtian theatre.
Written during 1929 and 1930, years of far-reaching political and economic upheaveal in Germany and the period of Brecht's most sharply Communist works, these short plays show an abrupt rejection of most of the trappings of conventional theatre.

The Lehrstücke are spare and highly formalized pieces intended for performance by amateurs, on the principle that the moral and political lessons contained in them can best be taught by participation in an actual production. There is nothing in the drama of the twentieth century to match the precision of their language and the economy of their theatrical technique.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Fiction, Theatre, Germany, Classics, Literature

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.

From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. Brecht's modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the 'epic form' of the drama (which constitutes that medium's rendering of 'autonomization' or the 'non-organic work of art'—related in kind to the strategy of divergent chapters in Joyce's novel Ulysses, to Eisenstein's evolution of a constructivist 'montage' in the cinema, and to Picasso's introduction of cubist 'collage' in the visual arts). In contrast to many other avant-garde approaches, however, Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to 're-function' the apparatus of theatrical production to a new social use. In this regard he was a vital participant in the aesthetic debates of his era—particularly over the 'high art/popular culture' dichotomy—vying with the likes of Adorno, Lukács, Bloch, and developing a close friendship with Benjamin. Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation to create a modernist realism that stood in sharp contrast both to its psychological and socialist varieties. "Brecht's work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg," Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."

As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also ‘Brecht’"—collective and collaborative working methods were inherent to his approach. This 'Brecht' was a collective subject that "certainly seemed to have a distinctive style (the one we now call 'Brechtian') but was no longer personal in the bourgeois or individualistic sense." During the course of his career, Brecht sustained many long-lasting creative relationships with other writers, composers, scenographers, directors, dramaturgs and actors; the list includes: Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, Slatan Dudow, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Caspar Neher, Teo Otto, Karl von Appen, Ernst Busch, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Therese Giehse, Angelika Hurwicz, and Helene Weigel herself. This is "theatre as collective experiment [...] as something radically different from theatre as expression or as experience."

There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have not felt the impact or influence of Brecht's ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill. In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht's influence may be detected in the films of Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.

During the war years, Brecht became a prominent writer of the Exilliteratur. He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays.

Reviews

[Peiman E iran]

‎دوستانِ گرانقدر، «اقدامهای انجام شده» نمایشنامه ایست که سخن از کمونیستهای بیخرد به میان آورده است و سخن از مغزشوییِ آنهاست، که چگونه با بازی با نامِ آزادی و کمونیسم، با جان و مالِ مردم بیچاره و ناآگاه بازی کردند... مردمی بیچاره که هنوز هم اسیر اهدافِ این موجودات هستند، موجودات رادیکالی که همه چیز را در جنگ میبینند
‎داستان در مورد چهار "آژیتاتور" است (آژیتاتور کسانی هستند که مردم را برای انقلاب و شورش آموزش میدهند و تشویق میکنند) ... آژیتاتورها که ملیت های مختلفی همچون روسی دارند، به چین و شهر "موکدِن" که امروزه "شن یانگ" نام دارد و به مرز روسیه و کره شمالی نزدیک است، سفر کرده و در آنجا و در مرز با چینی بیچاره ای آشنا میشوند که در داستان او را با نامِ «رفیق جوان» میشناسیم... آنها با جانِ این جوان بازی نموده و زندگی کارگران و مردمِ بیچاره را به خطر می اندازند تا به اهدافشان برسند و آمده بودند تا به قول خودشان به مردمِ بیچاره دانشِ عملیِ انقلاب عرضه کنند و جامعهٔ کارگری را از دستِ استعمارگران نجات دهند
‎و اینک در نمایشنامه این چهار آژیتاتور در حالِ گزارش دادن به «رئیس مقر حزب» هستند
‎در زیر به انتخاب، برخی از جملاتی که جالب به نظر می آمد را برایتان مینویسم
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‎آنکه در راه کمونیسم ، از فضیلت های جهان یک فضیلت داراست، آن فضیلت این است که در راه کمونیسم میجنگد
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‎دانا کسی نیست که هیچ اشتباهی از او سر نمیزند... بلکه، کسی که اشتباهاتِ خود را به سرعت، درست میکند، داناست
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‎خشونت تنها راهِ تغییرِ این دنیایِ مرگبار است، و این را هر موجودِ زنده ای میداند
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‎عزیزانم و نورِ چشمانم، هیچگاه اسیرِ سخنانِ فریب دهندهٔ هیچ حزبی نشوید که کثیفتر از احزابِ گوناگون هیچ نداریم... چنانچه زندگی خویشرا به دستِ احزاب گوناگون همچون حزب توده و حزبِ کمونیسم و دیگر احزابِ کثیف بسپارید، تا به خود بیایید در میابید که از کتابِ تاریخ و کتاب اندیشه و انسانیت چند خط و چند سطر، بیش نمانده است، که آن چند سطر و چند خطِ باقی مانده نیز در ستایش یا تجلیل از حزب است، که آن نیز چیزی جز منافع خودِ آن حزب و توجیه مقام حزب در رابطه با دلایل و توجیهِ سلطه اش بر مردم بیچاره و ناآگاهِ جامعه نخواهد بود
‎امیدوارم این ریویو در جهتِ شناختِ این کتاب و برایِ جوانانِ آگاهِ سرزمینم، کافی و مفید بوده باشه
‎«پیروز باشید و ایرانی»

[Owen Townend]

Perhaps it's not the most nuanced introduction to Brecht's writing but The Measures Taken is certainly educational.

I haven't read many socialist tracts but these short 'learning plays' speak a lot of sense. While the titular play veers on warfare and violence a bit more than I can agree with, I do appreciate Brecht's evergreen reminder that those in charge can be despicable in their opinions and treatment of those who they employ. He neatly demonstrates the need for strong worker's unions with plain English (or German as originated) and a complete lack of pretention.

Unfortunately this also translates to a lack of artifice and subtlety. I found the explanatory asides took me out of whatever plot there was. While I understand the objective of these plays is to teach performers and audience alike about Marxist ideals and practical realities, I did wish there was more aesthetic involved.

This concern aside, I found The Measures Taken and Other Lehrstucke a worthwhile reminder of class struggle and the 'us and them' mentality. If you're looking for scripts to teach such fundamentals to young thinkers, I can recommend this book.

Plays & Their Themes

• The Measures Taken - focused on serving one's duty and contradictions involved.

• The Exception and the Rule - focused on suspicions and power struggles.

• He Who Says Yes/No - a duology focusing on sacrifice and the needs of the many.

[Nile]

"Change the World: It Needs It

With whom would the just man not sit
To help justice?
What medicine is too bitter
For the man who's dying?
What vileness should you not suffer to
Annihilate vileness?
If at last you could change the world, what
Could make you too good to do so?
Who are you?
Sink in filth
Embrace the butcher, but
Change the world: It needs it!
We shall not listen to you much longer as
Judges. But
As students."

I really like (and prefer) Brecht's verse to his prose. And in these plays it's the verse that pierces the text here and there which stands out for me.

[Douglas Murphy]

brutal

[Peiman]

اون روزی که خوندم خیلی حرفای زیادی برای نوشتن داشتم راجع به این اثر ولی اینجا جاش نبود. الان هم اینو مینویسم چون دوست دارم چیزی در مورد این کتاب نوشته باشم. این نمایشنامه داره با تعریف یک داستان از زبان چند نفر که خودشون در ماجرا بودن به قصه ی پر غصه ی کمونیسم میپردازه. به این که چقدر زبان های قوی و مغزهای ضعیفی دارند! به نظر میاد که این موضوع اولین قدم برای تشکیل هر حزبی باشه!!!! بگذریم

[Derek]

counterposition of first and last lehrstück provides for a slightly ambiguous reading (especially given the bullshit Newsweek quote on the back calling Die Maßnahme "the most [...] disturbing political play ever written." would try to find a different edition for that reason alone.) the lehrstücke are definitely becoming of their legacy and i think a certain sobriety and objective purpose recognized by our masters are what caused them to tremble so during the HUAC persecutions at the possibilities that works like these given ample distribution might bring upon them.

[Anders]

I didn't know much about Brecht, but I was gifted this edition of a few of his plays by a comparative literature person back when I was in grad school. I had been vaguely interested in Marxist critical theory, but never really dabbled except in the one critical theory class where it was relevant. I think I must have read some article that was a Marxist reading of some tragedy...I know I read one that was a Baudrillard-ian take on Euripides' Helen...at any rate!

Then BBC's In Our Time decided to do a lil podcast on Brecht, so I said it's time to dust off this slim tome and give it a read. It was a very fast read and a lot less dense/more obvious than I thought it might be. There are some details that date it historically, but none so specific that it isn't easy enough to grasp what's going on. As far as plays go, they are what they say they are, "learning-plays" about Marxism for the expressed purpose of introducing the idea of reflecting on class prejudice and stereotypes and how that informs our day to day lives. I won't bother to explain Marxism to you, dear reader, as I'm sure you are enlightened enough to have a clear idea of it.

The first play is a criticism of communist practices, specifically soviet Russia's communist practices, and how they fall short of the (potentially Marxist) class conscious ideals that they purport to be working under. The second is similar, but a criticism of how capitalist practices seems to ignore awareness of class prejudice even at their best and even when people aspire to objective truth (in a court of law).

The last two plays are takes on Japanese Noh plays. I don't know much about why he chose them or how much he changed them but they do present an interesting dilemma from two different sides. The essential topic is consent and the two sides are, roughly, consent to cultural practices entails obedience without qualification and consent to cultural practices can be reevaluated but at the cost of cultural disapproval (shame). I would say that the points of each of the 4 plays are obvious and interesting and this is a nice little started volume of 4 plays by Brecht. Granted, that Brecht wrote proper plays and not just Marxist learning plays, these are still worthy and present topics in a meaningful way worth reflection. I'm sure in a class, it would stimulate an even better discussion.

I think I'd like to look a little more into Brecht and read/see one of his "proper" plays. That being said, these plays are pretty one dimensional and I don't think I have more of an understanding of what Brecht wanted to do with his plays other than what I've already outlined. Maybe I need to relisten to that podcast again lol.

[Scott Holstad]

Wow. OK. What to say? Brecht doesn't need to be defended, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, Mother Courage, right? What more is there to say? But to add some of his other works, many nearly as good? One of the best playwrights in history, and certainly over the past 150 years. But this? I guess I'd say this is his mulligan, his one off. Don't think I'll read it again. Unless you're a Brecht fanatic, I wouldn't recommend this and if you want to get into him, this would definitely NOT be the first place to start.

[Olivia]

1 star for the Measures Taken— the others were only slightly better insofar as they were a bit more subtle on the propaganda scale. Slightly. I am utterly perplexed as to why Benjamin was such a fan...

[Sophie]

the last two short plays were fun to read (though a bit disturbing)
gagged me fr

reminds me of Decir Si by Griselda Gambaro

brecht is kinda funny in a way i can't quite explain just yet if i ever find the words i will update this review

[Iusvaldio R]

For class

[Robbo]

Read for European Theatre.

[Sean Mackie]

Didactic !!!

[Madeline W]

Every organizer should read/see this play

[Lincoln Hall]

Baby’s first communist revolution

[Jennie Wilson]

Interesting!