Berthold Brecht came up with the idea of his play in 1935, in America, in forced emigration. At that time, in his native country, in Germany, Nazism had already been ascending but no one knew how huge it would become. Brecht implemented his idea only six years later. In 1941, when the play was finished, Germany had already invaded most of continental Europe – a large-scale and bloody war was spreading across the world. Brecht...
Berthold Brecht came up with the idea of his play in 1935, in America, in forced emigration. At that time, in his native country, in Germany, Nazism had already been ascending but no one knew how huge it would become. Brecht implemented his idea only six years later. In 1941, when the play was finished, Germany had already invaded most of continental Europe – a large-scale and bloody war was spreading across the world. Brecht foreboded the upcoming catastrophe and tried to warn about it. “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” is a satirical anti-fascist pamphlet on Hitler and his accomplices, the characters of Brecht's play had real historical prototypes. Brecht divided the gangster story into separate chapters. Each chapter was provided with the playwright's short comments – references to certain historical events that became milestones in Hitler's career. Comparing the grotesque and the document, drawing parallels between the story of Arturo Ui and the story of the rise of Hitler, Brecht interpreted the Nazi leader as a Chicago gangster. He debunked the Nazi myth, exposed the essence of this phenomenon, and ridiculed the tyrant with stunning parodic means. Brecht showed that, in fact, he was just a cynical and ruthless bandit who took advantage of the lust and unscrupulousness of the elite, the helplessness of ordinary people and seized power masterfully manipulating his henchmen.
