Bertolt Brecht is a communist in the sense that he believed in the ideals of the political group. Communism is a movement that aims to overthrow order by revolutionary means and to establish a classless society in which all goods are socially owned. In communism, all means of production are owned in common rather than by industries. It is the belief that all are equal and share the wealth of society. No one is better than others and therefore does not deserve a better life; there should not be a gap between the rich and poor. Marx believed that communism should be a society of abundance, equality, and free choice. Communism was based on Marxism. Marx believed a classless society would emerge from a class struggle because the better, newer class would always replace the prior. The bourgeois flourish while the proletariats become exploited because the proletariats do all the work for the bourgeois who profit from the work of the proletariat. Bertolt Brecht had many friends and associates that were a part of the communist party. As a young writer, he agreed with many ideas and theologies of Marxism, which inspired him to write many books and poems on Marxism. Bertolt Brech

Bertolt Brecht believed in communism for reasons related to his personal life. Weisstein says of Brecht, “his values are dangerous. He is not for exploiting present conditions: but he is for changing them. The theater is a moral institution, with a tendency to social revolution.” (Weisstein, 379) Brecht preferred the communist ideas because like him, they encouraged change from the current conditions of life. He had always disliked his life and the class in which he was a part of, the bourgeois.

Brecht was pursuing social change, and like Miller, he addressed events as an artist. He was a communist, but not a hero. He fled from everyone, the Nazis in 1933, then from the Americans in 1947. While in the United States, he was always under constant surveillance because he was a suspicious foreigner and a communist after the war. (Hart, April 22) Many believed that Brecht was a communist because of the subject matter of most his plays and poems. In his play “The Measures Taken,” Brecht shows us how to implement communism. It is about “measure” adopted by three Communist Party agitators. They were given the task of preparing the revolution in China and ended up killing a young comrade because his behavior prevented them from working successfully and endangered the movement. The controllers of the agitators agree with what they did and approve their “measure.” (Nowell, 146) An important observation from another one of his plays “Threepenny Opera” is that it has to do with private property and profiting from the work of others. Marxists believed that there was no such thing as stealing, just borrowing the ideas of others to get ones point across. (Hart, April 22) The “Threepenny Opera” shows how Brecht viewed society and its problems. It is about how the lawbreakers become the law and the lawmakers are lawless. This play is criticizing the goings on in Nazi Germany with the power struggle between the Aryans and Jewish. Because Brecht agreed with Marxist ideas, he did not like the idea of the wealthy becoming more prosperous while the unfortunate became more miserable. He wrote this play so that others could see the evils of that kind of society. He made the bourgeois or capitalist a criminal because they were using those below them to profit and become more affluent then everyone else. Brecht is criticizing the society where there is no chance for man to be equal economically.

He appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) on October 30, 1947. The transcript of his testimony is one of the only ones that have survived in its pure form. This is because Brecht’s testimony was broadcasted over the radio in America as well as Germany, so many recorded it by hand straight from the hearing it on the radio. The stenographers altered most of the testimonies that were given during the trials in order to sabotage the defendants. The chairman of HUAC dismissed Brecht and thanked him for his cooperation because Brecht answered all the questions asked of him to the best of his ability without lying in the process. The chairman does not know that Brecht never joined a communist party. The chairman believed Brecht to be a part of the communist party, that’s why he was asked to appear before HUAC to begin with. When asked “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party of any country?” and “You were not a member of the Communist Party in Germany?” (Bentley, 209) he answered honestly; he was not and had never been a part of the party.

In his piece “We Nineteen,” Brecht shows that he escaped being sentenced by HUAC because he was not protected by the constitution, so he was obligated to answer the $64.00 question “Are you, or have you ever been a member of the communist party?” Brecht says, “My American colleagues were protected by the Constitution; it was the Constitution that was not protected.” (Bentley, 224)

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