Weigel, Helene

Weigel, Helene (1900–71), Austrian-born actress and theatre manager, who began her career in Frankfurt playing such powerful low-life characters as Marie in Büchner's Woyzeck and the title-role in Schönherr's Der Weibsteufel. In 1923 she went to Berlin and under Jessner played minor roles in which she was admired by some critics, though others found her too strident and uncontrolled. She made her first big success as Klara in Hebbel's Maria Magdalene in 1925 and, after appearing as Grete in Toller's Der deutsche Hinkemann in 1927, the Widow Begbick in Brecht's Man ist Mann (also 1927), and the title-role in his adaptation of Gorky's The Mother in 1932, was considered unrivalled as the exponent of working-class women. In 1928 she married Brecht, accompanying him on his wanderings from 1933 to 1948, and appearing during this time only in his Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar in Paris in 1937 and Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches in the following year. Returning to East Berlin with him in 1948, she helped to found and run the Berliner Ensemble, playing with the company the title-role of her husband's Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, Natella in his Die kaukasische Kreidekreis, and Volumnia in his adaptation of Coriolanus. After Brecht died she took control of the company, the most important part she played after his death being Frau Luckerniddle in his Die heilige Johanna der Schlächthofe in 1968. Her acting in later life had an effortless simplicity, and in Mutter Courage she illustrated to perfection Brecht's theory of acting (see ALIENATION), seeming to stand beside the figure without identifying with it.