German playwright, poet, and theatrical reformer Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (1898–1956) developed theatre as a forum for critical reflection on society in order to advance his Marxist beliefs. Born in Augsburg, Bavaria, on February 10, Brecht studied medicine in Munich and briefly served at an army hospital in World War I. During the early 1920s, he developed an anti-bourgeois attitude and studied Marxism. Brecht lived in Berlin from 1924 to 1933, where he collaborated with composer Kurt Weill (1900–1950) and developed his theory of "epic theater" and his austere, irregular verse. In 1933, Brecht went into exile, spending six years in the United States (1941–1947), where he did some film work in Hollywood. During exile, Brecht wrote most of his great plays, essays, and poems, while his work was being burned in Nazi Germany. In 1949, he moved back to Berlin and despite the controversial communist ideals of his work, he enjoyed great success...