Enlightenment
Lessing
1749 at age of 20 entered Berlin. Employed briefly by Voltaire to translate some documents of his from French into German. Every Jew who passed thru the Brandenburg Gate had to pay a toll. 1751 edited the literary section of the Voss Gazette. At end of 1751 came into conflict with Voltaire. Had borrowed a copy of Voltaire's not -yet published work on Louis 14. Voltaire came to hear of it, and assuming a possible conspiracy to publish a pirate version, was enraged. Caused a stir in Berlin
Visit No 2. 1752 at age of 24. Among other things worked again for Voss.Produced 'Miss sara Sampson'.
Visiot No 3 1758
Visit No. 4 1765 Refused post of librarian to Friedrich 2. Minna in Hamburg in 1767. March 1768 Berlin immediate success.April 1767 only returned as occasional visitor.
Romanticism
- Arnim
- Hoffman Ritter Gluck describes Berlin of August 1809. My Cousin's Corner Window the imagination of a crippled poet, is applied to the day-to-day life he sees below his windows in the center of Berlin.
- Tieck Professor at Berlin University.
Theodor Fontane . Published his travel books t Wanderings thru the Mark Brandenburg from 1862 onwards. Also during the 1860s, he was employed as a newspaper correspondent and produced accounts of the wars which Prussia undertook during this period culminating in the war against France in 1870/1 during which he became a prisoner of the French. Began writing novels in 1878 at the age of 58, from when he wrote fifteen, several set in Berlin including probably his most famous Effi Briest ..
Expressionism
Die Aktion published from 1911-1932, until 1918 literary journal
- Gottfried Benn doctor in Berlin.
- Georg Heym Studied law in Berlin. Drowned in the Wannsee in 1912 (he was born in 1887) while trying to rescue a friend on thin ice. Published one book of poems in his lifetime. His selected poems and stories were first published in 1922 as Dichtungen.
- Jakob van Hoddis Born in 1887 in Berlin. His poem Weltende, published in Die Aktion in 1911, is considering to be a milestone in the foundation of expression. In 1914 suffered mental breakdown and never really recovered. In 1942 he was executed as part of the Nazi euthenasia program for the mentally defective
- August Stramm CAme to Berlin as an employee of the Post Office. Co-editor of Der Sturm. Killed on the Eastern Front in September 1915,.
Vigorous 1919-20 season of Expressionist drama in Berlin.
14. December 1925 first performance of Wozzeck by Alban Berg
1931 Hauptmann von Köpenick by C. Zuckmayer. Wilhelm Voigt. Based on an event of 1906. Intended to be a satire on Prussian respect for uniforms.
1933 Bauhaus, but almost immediately closed for good by Nazis
Bertolt Brecht
- 1920, 21. February : Brecht makes his first visit to Berlin but leaves on 13. March, the same day as the Kapp Putsch.
- 1921, 7. November : Second visit to Berlin. Drums is perfornmed by the Deutsches Theater in December. But Brecht returns to München soon after.
- 1924, 29. October returns to Berlin in a permanent basis.
- 1927 Involved with Piscator's directors' collective, based in the Piscator-Bühne,on the Nollendorfplatz
- 1928 31. August : Premiere of the Threepenny Opera at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm.
- 1929 : Premier of Happy End at the Theater am Shiffbauerdamm.
- 1930 : Premiere of the Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (at Leipzig)
- 1931 : Film version of Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin. Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny performed at the Kurfürstendamm Theater, Berlin.
- 1932 The Mother. at Theater am Schiffbauerdamm - in February, the police ban several performances of this play. Censored version of the film Kuhle Wampe opens in Berlin - banned shortly after.
- Leaves Berlin on 28. February, the morning after the Reichstag fire.
- 1949 : Berliner Ensemble founded. 11. January : Mother Courage opens at the Deutsches Theater. 12. November Mr Puntila and his man Matti in the same theater.
- 1950 : Vassa Zheleznova by Maxim Gorky. 15. April, The Tutor by Lenz
- 1951 : 13. January, The Mother performed in the Deutsches Theater. March Beavercoat and Red Cock but only played for 14 performances, because the Hauptmann heirs objected to Brecht's adaptions. Autum, Mother Courage.The Trial of Lucullus at Berlin State opera.
- 1952 : Senor Carrera's Rifles . THe trial of Jeanne D'Arc at Rouen in 1431 by Anna Seghers.
- 1953 : Broken Pitcher by Kleist. Kremlin Chimes by N.F.Pogodin (set design by John Heartfield). (a year after it had first appeared in Potsdam) Urfaust by Goethe, which drew adverse criticism from many people including Ulbricht. May, Katzgraben by Edwin Strittmatter, the only work put on by Brecht which dealt with contemporary DDR matters.
- 1954 : 19.March, moves to Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. 19. March Don Juan by Besson.7. October, premiere of the Caucasian Chalk Circle.
- 1955 : January, Winterschlacht by Johannes R. Becher.
- 1956 : Trumpets and Drums, Recruiting Officer by Farquhar, THe Ward, or Good Deeds Hurt by Alexander Ostrovski, THe Day of the Great Scholar Wu, PLayboy of the Western World by John Synge.
BE supported by Caspar Neher, Elisabeth Hauptmann, Paul Dessau